Okay, so a bad day public service announcement didn’t follow me home thankfully ala the awesome REM song, but it has been a bad day on the large scale. From computers to websites and erratic Subarus, here’s why I really should’ve stayed in bed this morning..
It’s a clean slate computer!
After the hapless HP tech went through hell and high water over the last few weeks (poor bugger copped an injury one week and then got sick the next), finally the day arrived where I could hand back my old laptop for a new one. And boy has my old one seen some travel from the Gold Coast to Albury, countless nights next to my bed (just in case I had to log in to fix stuff overnight, yes indeed I do not miss that rubbish) to helping me broadcast my show from my own bedroom in covid times. It’s been a solid five years or so with it, godspeed semi-faithful.
And I thought I’d be there today for a solid hour with the tech setting up the new machine but no – it arrives empty, he loads in a setup from a mirror somewhere and jobs done, onto the next one (there’s a lot to replace.) So five minutes after handover, I’m ticked off the list. And it looks pretty good too with the new unit and a fresh install of Windows 11 (which is also new for me).
But…in no time flat it’s decided that no, it doesn’t like my outlook settings – so I need to fix that, tomorrow in the middle of a busy Friday.
I can’t install Adobe Audition on it because apparently the network installer we have messes it up so bad, nothing short of nuclear annihilation could fix it, so that’s out.
No problem, I use a different editing program which I showed to the head engineer and he gave me a look like I’d just worked out how many minutes he had left on this earth, counting with one hand. Having no idea on what it was, there’s the possibility it won’t be coming back anytime soon unless I can find the original poor bastard who put it there five years ago. So, let’s call that out for the time being.
Teams works though but I couldn’t think of a more useless and annoying program if I tried, so that’s a pass.
So yeah, brand new computer, still dumb as a box of hammers. It’s going to take a while to get this new mean machine up and running.
Bad Day – Red hot delivery time
I needed to drop off something to my wife working in Wodonga (a short drive over the border from where I work) and I figured while I was there, I’d pop over to Bunnings (more on that saga in a second.) The bastard Subaru on the other hand decided that was a good a time as any to pour some more irritant on the day turning it from mildly inconvenient to dipping into bad day territory. Yes, the heat needle went up again mid drive and so I pulled over to let it get it’s sh- together.
(As much as I’m sick of it’s crazy ways, I’d like to sell it before it possible explodes hence taking precautionary measures when the heat level supposedly rises.)
So I parked, walked to the local library, sat and read calmly for half an hour and then found the nearest auto parts store for a small bottle of coolant.
‘Are you a member?’
‘No.’
‘Would you like to be?’
‘Not at this moment, thank you.’
So suddenly the price of the bottle has jumped up from $19 to $21, due to my lack of membership. Which begs the obvious question why not put the actual non-member price on the shelf sticker in the first place??? (That way you’ll be surprised by paying less if you are a member, crazy I know.) Repco, you’re usually pretty good but this is pretty poor form.
But when I got back to the car, I found things were full of coolant and could take no more. WTF? Why was the coolant temp sensor getting annoyed by a lack of the stuff? I suppose I have a fresh bottle of coolant now just in case, but still. So I drove over to Bunnings to find out their website is just as unreliable as my car at the moment.
On a bad day everything is under the one roof, until you look for it.
Sigh. All I wanted to do was buy this:
It’s what I’m looking to have as part of my desk project only now I’m of the theory that this particular thing doesn’t actually exist in the real world, it’s only listed to kick my sanity hard in the breadbasket. Because it’s the perfect size for what I’m looking to build, it’s pre-oiled so I don’t have to do that and I even made sure it’s dimensions would fit okay in the Subaru (which it will with the back seat down and the passenger seat reclined back as far as it can go.) As far as I was concerned, all I needed to do was bring one home, bolt some legs on courtesy of Amazon (something like this – affiliate link), create some PVC shelving and off we go.
According to the Bunnings website, the Albury store had them in stock. So a couple of days ago I drove over there and spent 20 minutes looking everywhere and finding everything else instead. So I looked on the phone again and suddenly it’s ‘Unavailable’, like someone ninja’d it out five minutes before I got there (highly possible actually..) Gah.
Before I hit the Wodonga store, I checked the website and joy of joys, it’s listed as available. So as soon as the car stopped it’s idiotic behaviour, I headed over there. Annnnd…found everything else but. There’s the no oiled version but that’s not what I’m looking for. So I asked at the counter and they looked it up and apparently it says it’s available because it was a special order for someone.
Yes for some reason if they get one in for someone, the computer marks it as ‘available’ on the website when it’s actually not. Strangely the woman behind the counter didn’t ask if she could order one in for me, all I got was a ‘sorry.’
So annoyed again, I jumped in the car and wouldn’t you know it? The heat gauge started to rise again from it’s halfway point. If you keep the car moving at relative speed it does help with the cooling (all the air it sucks in) but that’s not counting traffic. And slow cars in front of me. And traffic lights that take an ice age to change. Suffice to say it was a very tense ride back with one eye on the gauge the entire time.
Can you tell how much I can’t wait to see the back of this thing?
I got home okay though, let it cool for an hour and then went out and put some coolant in it which this time it gratefully accepted. What was going on before, I don’t know (air bubbles somewhere?) but at least I could pick up the kids with some of the driving stress possibly removed.
There’ll be no parking here
It seems to be an unwritten rule no matter where my kids go to school: If you want to be able to park anywhere close to the school, you need to be there a solid hour before the bell. Anything less than that and there’s more than a fair chance you’re parking on the outskirts and hoofing it in, because some parents with time on their hands will park and do there taxes or something while they wait. So me arriving 10 minutes before everyone shut up shop? I knew I wasn’t going to get a look in and of course I wasn’t the only one.
Public service announcement time: If you’re a parent in an oversized SUV who rides the tail of a car like mine because you couldn’t get a park either, I hate you. Because I had someone do this today around two corners while I was trying to find somewhere – right up my bum, leaving no time to slow down and look. It’s not possible to parallel park anything when you got someone like this idiot baring down on you, right on your heels. And yes I know you would have looked down from your leather clad throne and thumbed your nose at my sub 10k vehicle, you seemed that much of a prat from your driving habits.
So I hope you get a flat tire and your child brings home a disappointing report card. Serves you right for adding to my bad day frustrations.
At least the car didn’t try to overcook itself to death on the way home with the kids though, that was a bonus.
But I took a moment
Okay, today wasn’t all bad day moments. Thankfully a hit of the good stuff came along to soothe some of the frustrations on this Thursday:
-Free coffee this morning (the buy nine get one free deal.) And the free one’s always seem so much more tastier.
-A hug from my daughter when I picked her up from school. Always makes me feel better.
-Listening to Miles Davis’s Gerenique on the car stereo. That’s one part of the car that currently works without a hitch (and it’ll be the only part I’m keeping) but there’s something so beautifully calming about that piece of masterful music.
-Jack’s teacher telling me he was one of only 4 kids that passed an advanced maths test. He’s not confident in his own abilities but it’s great to have these moments to prove that he’s more than capable of anything if he stops and puts his mind to it.
So here’s to a better day tomorrow hey? Maybe after all this stupid stuff today, I’ll win the lottery tomorrow! (Better buy a ticket then..)
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