Modern Vespa

How's their sphere coming along?

I see what you did there.

Good Lord, don't get us started on this… It would be sure to be squashed by the moderators. Mrs. CLE subscribes to another "forum" which force feeds her this trash everyday… courtesy of my tin foil hat wearing SIL.

Who needs truth when there is a metaverse of alternate facts?

Chris from CLE

two things really..

1. My wife woke up to find some 60 year guy in her bed!!



2. Another year older today

Happy Birthday

Thanks mate.

It occured to me today..

Things that people say 'It's only a number' about - Your age

Things that people don't say 'It's only a number' about - Everything else

You're only as old as your wife feels.

maybe I'm getting that later

Happy Birthday.

Same thing happened to me a couple of weeks back. I fought back with a really wretched rendition of Happy Birthday.

She had two things to regret.

Even I appreciated this.

Sigh.

The short version of this statement is that - Isn't it refreshing that people with more intelligence, knowledge and experience in specific fields than us can still make huge mistakes in conception, R and D and manufacture.

The long version is that how do people who have climbed the ladder of success by being promoted by their ability to generally do things with a fair degree of competence suddenly seem to morph into absolute inept asshats when they reach the top of the tree ?

Anyone know ?

That's called the Peter Principle.

Failing upwards then.

Abject incompetence has a name

Yes. High school football players who go to college on a football scholarship and earn a business degree and wind up being managers or directors because they have a piece of paper, but in the back of their minds they are always regretting they never made the big leagues and they take it out on all the people below them they see as inferiors. No offense to any high school footballers out there.

I think I avoided that years back. Boss at the heavy equipment shop brought me in to the office and started telling me he was going to "promote" me to shop foreman because he said I did good work. I think I caught him off-guard a bit when I said thanks but No Thanks. When he asked why I said, "I have no problem taking the blame or explaining why I screwed something up, but did not want to spend all my time explaining why a dozen people were screwing up!"

As it turned out about eight years later the shop that used to do work for quarries all around the state for the company was reduced to just doing maintenance for the local quarry. Guess who kept their job for another ten years? And the guy who did take the job I was offered only managed to keep his by down grading from shop foreman to haul truck driver.

I was asked by four different bosses where I expected to be in five years. Each time I replied " I want to be right here, doing the job better. Oh, by the way, each one of those asking, except one, wished he was in my position. I enjoyed being the one working, as opposed to the one managing.

I argue all the time that the super efficient happy workers at the coal face should be rewarded in ways other than promoting them away from their happy places.

Likewise, for years I turned down the invitation for promotion, far preferring to be hands-on and solving engineering puzzles rather than solving personnel problems.

And likewise, when the crunch came and the business was sold to another party I was one of just 50 people out of 1500 on that site to keep my job.

The late great comedian Mitch Hedbeg had a great joke for this:

"I had a job interview at an insurance company once, and the lady said 'Where do you see yourself in five years?' I said, 'Celebrating the fifth year anniversary of you asking me this question!'"

You really could talk volumes on this subject. Personal experiences impact much of your reaction to management or your wanting to get promoted to one.

I was a corporate manager for 28 years. Overview, it is really refreshing to meet and/or work for a great leader. No matter what level (up the ladder) you attain, it will always be populated with the human continuim of bad, mediocre,
good. Just because someone is promoted doesn't mean they could be good - they may have got the promotion by seniority.

In my 28 years, 1/3rd of my bosses didn't help or like me, 1/3rd did not hate me but did very little to train or help, and 1/3rd supported me and taught me valuable skills. So, you have one chance in 3 of working for a great leader.

I believe I had a good work ethic. My strategy was never to let a bad boss impact my career. Further, discovering medocrity at all levels allowes a determined person to out perform them. Hey, you can look good because you are surrounded by average joes.

Bob Copeland

Oh, they certainly did.

Toyota Tacoma wheels / rims exactly like the ones on my truck are in vogue with thieves. Both news outlets and neighborhood social medial groups are posting photos of Tacos and 4-Runners up on cinder blocks with $1000's in damage.

Most wheels are lifted overnight in peoples' parking spots.

My local wheel shop said the rim locks are only a minor deterrent, and if you go onto YouTube you can watch unlimited demo's on how to get various locking lugs off.

I did order two different kinds of the more challenging lock versions in hopes they'll move to another Tacoma. The only other deterrent I can think of is parking super close to my wife's car so they can't get at the wheels on one side.

Guess we'll wait and see. Hopefully they catch the scumbags.

Put "Denver boots" on the other side.

Had to come back and look this one up. Thet's a new one!

Another day another Audi crossover tried to kill me. Really makes you wonder how much some drivers pleasure the instructor to get a licence.

Did you think about making every nut a locking wheel nut ?

Update

This morning, a VLB (Very Large Box) appeared on my doorstep. Inside was the new lower dishrack I ordered for my dishwasher. And lo and behold, contrary to the pictures that were on the listing I ordered from, this unit had the full complement of 8 wheels, already installed. Which is fortunate, because I did not order the gazillion-dollar wheels along with the dishrack, figuring I would have to figure out how to transfer the existing wheels onto the new rack.

HOWEVER

While the new rack has a full set of wheels, the layout of the pegs has changed since the original was made 13 years ago. It's vaguely the same, but different enough that the carefully-curated arrangement of dishes that my wife and I have worked out over this 13 year period will no longer work. Bowls, in particular, don't seem to fit between the new peg spacing, and if we move them to another spot then something else won't fit.

And that is what is pissing me off today.

Most auto parts stores sell a socket that taps the locking wheel nuts and spins them right off, even the ones with the floating barrel around the lock nut can be hacked with them.

I did order these..

https://advancedwheellocks.com/product/wheel-lock-set-m14x1-5-47mm-tall-cone-seat/

My heart goes out to you.
We replaced our thirty five year old dishwasher-AEG- eight months ago-BOSCH-and said stacking is still fraught with anxiety. I just cant seem to get a good rhythm going. Quelle dommage

I've read that in any relationship there are two types of dishwasher loaders: rabid racoon on meth, or Scandinavian architect. For the former, a revised arrangement is nothing to note; for the latter, well, catastrophic development.

FWIW, I feel your angst.

Bob

The level of deflection involved when you disagree with someone who looks down on you and your belief, when later, after the facts have been checked you've been proven to have been right all along.

It's not a case of whether you were correct or not It's more a case of their naive assumption that you just couldn't be right because they regard you as being beneath them.

The smell of a burnt clutch or belt and I'm nowhere near home 😭

Got recovery ?

Get your phone out.

I'm at the top of a 4x4 track on a mountain. Letting it cool down and it's all downhill back to my accommodation. So I'm still optimistic ...

Hoisted by your own pie then.

It's probably just the water steaming off the casings.

I was supposed to do 500km tomorrow but think I'll take the more direct route home which is still 200 or so and cruise gently with many stops. 🤔

Probably the wiser route. Hope it's nothing disabling. Being that far out is concerning. At least in part because of distance limits on towing insurance...

Honda PC 800's are really pissing me off.