Modern Vespa

That's because it's not supposed to get out.

I know a man who works for a scooter manufacturer who knows someone who was at the NEC supporting the aforementioned brand and that's the numbers I'm afraid.

Riding in - 2 today

Me - BikeShedMoto.

You ?

Me - work

It might be time to cancel the Newspapers.

1. Your cats are gorgeous.

2. We have four cats. The girl kitty (dilute tortoiseshell) doesn't eat treats. The Maine Coon prefers bread as a treat. The orange tabby will eat anything. The Nebelung is somewhat particular about treats. We get Purebites Freeze-Dried Salmon for him (and the orange tabby). List price is $6.74 per 0.92 oz bag ($117.22/lb). We get it from Chewy.com, who sells it for $4.69/bag ($81.57/lb). But we have it on autoship, so we only pay $4.46/bag ($77.57/lb). The thing that sucks about it is that some of the pieces are just chunks of salmon skin with no meat on them, and the cats can't eat it. We've had bags that are over half skin.

What about canned salmon from the grocery store?
I know -- cats are picky.

We had to replace our water heater back in 2016 due to a leak in the output pipe. It had probably been leaking for a few weeks, but we didn't notice because our water heater is in an enclosure on the outside of the house. It made it really easy when the plumber went to drain it, he just opened the drain valve and let it run.

On the downside, there was no cutoff valve, so we had to turn the water off at the meter. The plumber installed a new cutoff valve when he installed the new heater. We bought the new heater at Lowe's, because we had available credit on our Lowe's card. He even went to Lowe's with us to get it and bring it to our house in his van, because there was no way it would fit in the back of our Veloster.

Technically we were supposed to get a permit from the city to do the installation. But he did the work to code, and when we had our new gas line put in back in 2020, the city inspector didn't say anything about the water heater installation (the gas line entered the house next to the water heater). I don't remember how much we paid for the installation, but I think it was probably less than $300.

Fucking banks.

Can't look at transaction history more than two years ago. I only was hunting something from 2&1/2 years ago. Bastards, we know that they have the records, it's not as thought that have pressed deleted. 🤬

Mine's brilliant. I was due to drop in to do some investing but they asked me to visit the day before because they knew the interest rate was due to drop the day after.

And it did.

On the flip side of Customer Services what's this new phenomena of employees in Banks and Coffee Shops asking me what I'm going to do with the rest of my day ?

It seems to be happening with increased frequency.

I feel like this has been a thing in the US for a while now. It's as if the barista or teller were given an updated script of canned greetings. It gets really tricky when there is a cafe in the bank, which is also becoming more of a thing here.

Maybe you just project a life of leisure and tickle the wondering minds of people trapped behind a glass partition or sneeze barrier.

My recent tactic is to lower my voice and say " I'm not going to tell you that."

In the last 3 or 4 months I've really noticed it.

I'm not a fan.

Sounds like a good way to get a barista to spit in your coffee.

The sneeze barrier is actually there so you cannot successfully spit back.

'I will be spending the rest of my day in police custody for accosting a barista, thanks for asking.'

The engagement always happens post hand over.

Try answering with - Crying on the carpet while curled up in a ball repeating the mantra " I did my best."

[quote="Shebalba"]
. It gets really tricky when there is a cafe in the bank, which is also becoming more of a thing here.



Wow, whatever next, a Bar in a Library?

One can dream.

perfect, this would be a great way to increase folks into using libraries as they have seen a HUGE fall in folks using them.

if they would also offer free rides home that would be even better.

edit: and you can drink in peace and quite with out having to listen to a bar tender tell you their woes or anyone else.

Not in our library. They encourage kids and teens to be there, and let them make all the noise they want. So much for peace and quiet in a library
I haven't been there in years, as a result.
Progress

Mrs Jess (who has a Masters in Library and Information Science, and collects library cards as if each one was a 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card) says that Libraries today offer a wide range of services and are more popular than they've ever been.

I'm sure this varies regionally, but in our part of California, libraries are hoppin'.

In the vein of Bill Dog's non customer service note, here in little old New Zealand everyone is "reaching out" to people! FFS, what's wrong with ringing/texting/messaging/contacting them. I try reaching out and despite my reasonably decent wingspan I'm most likely to have the dog sniff my fingers.

They are around here, too. New, modern buildings - our local one even has an array of 3D printers on hand, and will give lessons if desired! I haven't taken them up on the offer yet - too much else to do around here.

Well, that wasn't how I expected my day to go. Saturday I helped my wife load some prunings onto a trailer and unload them at the green waste site. Sunday I woke up with three small welts on my left shoulder. Monday morning they had got a little larger and I was cursing something affecting me. Tuesday there were more and I was a bit more concerned and we started talking about what I may be allergic to. First Doctors appointment I could get was today. I met my new doctor for the first time and then took my tee shirt off and he just said "shingles". Whaaaat - but I have had the injection when I turned 65. How did I get this? Bad luck it seems. The immunisation is 80% effective and drops with time.
So, it's bloody uncomfortable, I have an aching left shoulder, a prickly rash on the top left of my chest , feels like swollen glands under my left ear and a sensitive scalp on the left side All very annoying. Got anti viral meds and some good steroids to help out.
Doesn't stop me doing anything fortunately.

the shingles vaccine is a 2 part one, taken about 3 months apart. did you get both?

I just had to do a quick look at my bank. I can access my checking account online back to Nov. 2016. So I can at least go back seven years right now. There is a tab where it says I can contact them for older records.

They have to get the mag tapes out of storage.

Lufthansa.

They cancelled our flight from Porto to Munich on very short notice, which will prevent us from catching the second leg of our trip from Munich to San Francisco.

And then, Lufthansa flat-out refused to help us. Directed us at United, even though our United flight was still scheduled, and also the fact that United doesn't even fly out of Porto, and so doesn't have any flights of their own to actually give us.

My wife just spent a couple hours on the phone with United, trying various permutations of flight plans on various carriers through various cities to try to get us back to the US. Currently, it looks like we are stuck here in Porto for an extra two days.

@#$% Lufthansa.

I was looking at a conference in Portugal and couldn't get flights included in the same ticket as my flights to Europe. Which is why I've never been there.

Ps, skyscanner seems to be the best site for finding flight options.

Could have scheduled the two days in Munich originally. That may have mitigated the cancelled problem. My brother has had similar happen to him. Now I plan at least one night in any intermediate city.

When we got ours the NZ Government was using a single dose Zostavax. It has been replaced with a 2 dose Shingrix. It is provided free when you turn 65. We will go back once I am able to immunised again.

I just had my 2nd dose Tuesday and spent all of Wednesday in bed feeling like hot garbage. And it's intramuscular so it feels like Conor McGregor punched me in the arm over and over.

I remember that feeling after an intramuscular shot of Voltaren for a migraine headache. I said to my wife that the injection worked because the pain from the needle was worse than the pain from the migraine - well, not really.

Agreed, though we have a flat in Porto, so opted just to stay put until we could get a flight. Not having to scramble for accommodations was the silver lining of this particular fiasco.

Road Trip?

Is Porto to Munich about the same as Wichita to Chicago?

While walking this morning I got chatting to a really funny and engaging Journalist from Cyprus who had me in tears with her amazing sense of humour.

Her name was Guly but pronounced July.

Did I ask for her number ? Did I bollocks.

I had the same thought, but more The Long Way Round rather than PT&A

Pigletpilot/old as dirt,

Shingles is painful. I had it years ago. For the rest of you viewing this post, shingles is the old Chickenpox in your system from youth.

About ten years ago, after having shingles, I had the two step vaccination. As previously posted, it is about 80% effective. Several years ago, my doctor during an annual physical, indicated there was a new one shot vaccination that is darn near 99% effective. So, I got the new one. Sorry, I do not know the name of the vaccine. I have not had a reoccurrence of shingles.

Bob Copeland

My first dose is scheduled for this afternoon.

Libraries and Newspapers,

I can not substantiate this, but I think 24 hour Cable News and looking things up on your computer have reduced newspaper circulation and folks going into a library to look something up.

I still like going into the library, but seem to buy books online to read them. I still like newspapers because they give you a more in depth reading on a subject.

Problem, local newspapers have been somewhat polarized politically like cable news. Best solution, watch different cable news sources and read a variety of newspapers.

Bob Copeland

I do like a good read. I have read all the Jack Reacher novels by author Lee Child. If you start, you may get hooked on these. It is like riding a Vespa - you become hooked.