Just need to vent...

Today's vent -
Careless company employees.
BANG ! !
Look out window and see a heavy duty work truck just smashed into neighbor's tree across the street.
Run outside to see if driver had heart attack Etc - to render help. No one's in it. It's locked.
911 called. Checked our cameras. Showed no one was in it driving.
Cops showed up.
Long story short - driver from over a dozen houses up the street forgot to set break.
Street is on a gentle slope.
The rest is history.
Good news is the tree was there otherwise it would have clipped off a fire hydrant.
Hope the business owner is well insured.
Hope the employee is shown mercy - but dang - we've had a few careless employees in our day & it brought back some serious flashbacks.





Perfect chance to lighten the mood - being the consummate wise Guy:

"You can't park here"

"Think that'll rub out?"

"That's no way to flush a radiator"

.

 

Just west of downtown Pontiac, Michigan, on Orchard Lake Road, is a railroad overpass. I think there has been a reconstruction project since I worked in the area, to improve the clearance, but back in the 1980s and 1990s it was (Gemini tells me) 12 feet 6 inches.

There were large signs on Orchard Lake Road as you approached from either direction. There were also light beams and photocells on poles 12'6" high as you approached from either direction. If your vehicle broke the beam, bright red lights would flash and electric bells would clang in parabolic reflectors focused at your cab.

Also, all of the agencies in the greater metro area that rented trucks had a special clause in their rental contracts. If the truck wasn't under 12'6", you had to sign a special agreement that you weren't going to drive it on Orchard Lake Rd west of downtown.

The firm I worked for had a delivery that had to be made. One of the guys was assigned to go rent a truck and get the stuff and deliver it. He rented the truck. He signed the agreement. He loaded the truck. He drove on Orchard Lake Rd. The red lights flashed. The bells clanged. And he peeled the top off the truck.

 

10' bridge on storrow drive in Boston, it's a newbie ritual


another bridge

 

Similar IQ to the guy who buffed and polished my boat.

 

Can't find good skilled labor these days. It seems idiots who just landed in this country with no skill are marking up their prices thinking they're worth $250/h.

 

Having stayed at a KOA Campground in Miles City montana, there's a train UNDERPASS that has one of these ridiculously short clearance conditions. Would have knocked the 2 ACs off the 5th wheel, as well as the satellite dish, had driving not been in full focus - all the while keeping an eye on pedestrians, traffic, & directions.

 

Considering the downside, sometimes they are.

.

 

That's a funny, also terrifying, business model

 

We, really, need to just give the US Postal "Service" over to Amazon to manage. More and more times, we'll order stuff on Amazon and have a picture sent to us of it's delivery that same day.

On April 22nd, I ordered something and got a USPS Tracking Number. (My first thought was, "This is going to be a problem")

So the package got the sticker and put into the system in St Louis, MO. (876 miles away). "expected delivery" was 27 April...this is the real tracking info:

Delivered

Delivered, In/At Mailbox

MONUMENT, CO 80132

April 30, 2026, 12:04 pm

Out for Delivery

MONUMENT, CO 80132

April 30, 2026, 8:47 am

Arrived at Post Office

MONUMENT, CO 80132

April 30, 2026, 8:36 am

Arrived at USPS Facility

MONUMENT, CO 80132

April 30, 2026, 6:33 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 30, 2026, 5:36 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 30, 2026, 5:05 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 30, 2026, 4:44 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 30, 2026, 4:27 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 29, 2026, 8:23 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 29, 2026, 7:48 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 29, 2026, 6:31 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 29, 2026, 3:23 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 28, 2026, 11:52 pm

Departed USPS Regional Facility

SALT LAKE CITY UT DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 28, 2026, 9:48 pm

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

SALT LAKE CITY UT DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 28, 2026, 7:47 pm

In Transit to Next Facility

April 28, 2026, 2:12 pm

In Transit to Next Facility

April 28, 2026, 10:14 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

RENO NV DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 28, 2026, 9:03 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

RENO NV DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 28, 2026, 8:17 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 28, 2026, 5:36 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

SAN FRANCISCO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 28, 2026, 4:21 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 27, 2026

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

SAN FRANCISCO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 26, 2026, 10:05 pm

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

DENVER CO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 25, 2026, 7:33 pm

In Transit to Next Facility

April 25, 2026, 4:13 pm

In Transit to Next Facility

April 25, 2026, 10:59 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

ST LOUIS MO PACKAGE SORTING CENTER

April 25, 2026, 5:52 am

In Transit to Next Facility

April 24, 2026, 10:56 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility

ST LOUIS MO PACKAGE SORTING CENTER

April 23, 2026, 7:56 pm

Accepted at USPS Regional Origin Facility

SAINT LOUIS MO DISTRIBUTION CENTER

April 23, 2026, 6:41 pm

Pre-Shipment, USPS Awaiting Item

April 23, 2026
---------------------------------------

So it went from St Louis to Denver to San Fran to Reno to Salt Lake City to Denver then to my house.....3,838 miles to just travel the 876 miles to my house.

Gee, I wonder why the USPS is $120 Billion in debt???

 

You can thank one loser for that: DeJoy, who defunded USPS severely after taking the position under, well you know who. The usual effer-upper

USPS under Amazon... that would be scary. Dynamically telling you different prices / shipping times depending on whatever metadata they collect from you, is and has been their MO in the Amazon store for years. They can't even get Whole Foods right, keep them away from post across the whole country, bitte.

But that's not to give a bone to current USPS -- they do suck steamy-moose-... you know Seems like many of their 'innovations' are like DeJoy himself: mostly blustery theatre with no arse to it... for non-billionaires or multinational corps, anyway.

 

Congress started the mess way before Dejoy showed up...

How Congress Manufactured a Postal Crisis — And How to Fix it - Institute for Policy Studies

 

What kind of post, and what made it sway?

 

...... doesn't matter - because, facts don't / aren't important when it doesn't fit the narrative

.

 

My 2023 federal tax return requested a refund ending in 84 cents. I got a check for the next lower whole dollar.

My 2024 return requested a refund ending in 68 cents. I got a check for the exact amount.

My 2025 return requested a refund ending in 28 cents. I just got a direct deposit for the next higher whole dollar.

Is there some programmer at IRS still trying to figure out how to round?

 

So, a pressure-treated 4✕4 or the like?