Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Frag Maniac]

I hope you'll recover soon. I haven't been homeless, but the one time I missed a rent payment was one of the most stressful times in my life and financial insecurity is definitely a massive stress factor.

Thanks, the state website that handles DOL issues in my area is still down after doing my drive today. Lots of traffic out there for a Sunday, but it's probably mostly due to my having gotten up a bit later, which caused me to leave an hr later than normal. It was a LONG line at the tunnel car wash before getting on the freeway. Freeway traffic was OKish if you're quick to look for open spots like I do. The southbound ramp at my turn around point had the longest line I've seen yet, but at least the metering light on the northbound ramp wasn't being used.

Upon pulling up to my apt building I'd first thought all the street parking had been taken, but there was one spot open, and it's one of the ones I like most and use a lot. It's the one good thing so far in the last couple days for me. I'm going to cling to it and milk it for all it's worth.

 

[BeardyHat]

Off to the mountains tomorrow, 235 miles 4 hours 35 minutes.

Went over my van yesterday, checked the oil and coolant, which it needed both of, as well as wiper fluid. Got the wheels balanced (it was missing a wheel weight, I noticed), pulled them off myself later to check how much friction material was left on the brakes and then got all the garbage out and vacuumed.

Not sure how much more meticulous I can be, but I just wanna make it to our destination without incident. Luckily the majority of the drive will be on i-70, so fairly easy all told.

Edit: also bought some Walkie Talkies since my sister in law will be caravaning behind us in her car... I'm mostly just excited to have Walkie Talkies.

 

[Frag Maniac]

More rollercoaster ups and downs. I swear I feel like I could be the manager of Six Flags by now. I'm on the downslope track now though. I ended up finding out via contacting the main DOL in my area that I had an outstanding traffic ticket for $93 dollars for an HOV lane violation, $80 of which was late fees because they sent it to my old address.

I now recall what caused all the address change reporting problem. The DOL website to change it on was down, so I called the DOL CS that handles online problems (which you can't do anymore because you never get to speak to anyone), and the gal said she'd forward my new address to them, but it never got to them. Why even have a phone number to call if you never help people on it?

So I had to call the Good To Go! service that handles Toll and HOV violations in my state. They waived all but the tax on the ticket, so I only paid $8. However one of their gals talked me into buying their $15 Flex Pass, which she claimed would allow me to drive HOV lanes free. She neglected to say none of the monitored areas it works for are the freeway sections I told her I drive.

In the process this gal also told me the Flex Pass was sold at one of the local grocery store chains. So I bought one today and then found out it won't work for the roads I drive, but I called Good To Go! back and this time the gal I spoke to said I should be able to refund it at the store. Nope, they do not refund that type of product, saying it was "like a gift card". I'd believed it had they said most of the $ gets sent to the state.

So I call Good To Go! yet again, and they said they not only can't refund it, they can't even apply the amount I paid to go towards any possible reduced tolls or violations because they have no way to do that. It wasn't until I called one of the bigger grocery stores of that chain and talked to their manager that they agreed to offer me store credit in the amount I paid when I come in Thur for my big grocery trip.

So after paying off the ticket online at the DOL site, I already got confirmation the DOL had acknowledged that and I could finally get my tabs. I also bought a Discover Pass, which allows parking access at trailheads I'll be using for mt biking. They will go up from $30 per yr to $45 this Oct, so I felt it was a good buy. I DID have to pay $35.50 to get my car Title replaced though.

I swear all of these people that work for the local gov or at services that monitor violations for them or even stores that sell their passes to drive free in HOV lanes or get reduced tolls, are corrupt as hell. Even the gal at the counter of my closest DOL vehicle licensing office after I picked up my tabs I bought online tried to sell my an $85 Quick Title when I said I need to buy a replacement.

I tell ya people, DON'T MESS WITH ME, I know the games you play. She says, "Oh, you mean a "duplicate title". Well, the website refers to buying lost or stolen tabs as "replacing them", so I think it's a con game they play to try to sucker you into it. At any rate, I guess it could have been a lot worse, never got pulled over for having 2 mo expired tabs, and the most this cost me to correct was $43. I had some choice words to say at a rather loud volume to that Good To Go! gal that kept apologizing instead of solving the problem they created though.

Thank GOD tomorrow will be an easy day, no drive, no workout, just have to put the tabs on and there's also a free trip to the local waterfront aquarium that our housing landlords got us tickets for. I love and miss seeing the sea otters when they feed them. My faves are when they lay on their back near the side of the tank in front of the viewing window and crack open the shells behind their head on the tank like they're slam dunking a mini basketball. They even use their bellies as a table. The other is when they go over to the gal while she's grabbing their food out of a 5 gal baker's tub and lean on her shoulder as she's crouched down like they're offering suggestions on which one they'd like. They're just some of the coolest sea creatures to me period!

 

[neogunhero]

I tell ya people, DON'T MESS WITH ME, I know the games you play.

People in those positions hope that their customers are not like you. They hope the customers don't see through the BS, believe everything being said to them, and just go along anytime they are asked to pay. Good on you for not falling for it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

People in those positions hope that their customers are not like you. They hope the customers don't see through the BS, believe everything being said to them, and just go along anytime they are asked to pay. Good on you for not falling for it.

Yeah I got street smart when I was homeless for 3 yrs many years ago, and in retrospect I often think it was good that I went through it, because it gave me a built-in BS detector. Not the easiest way to learn such things, but valuable lessons none the less.

 

[BeardyHat]

250 arduous miles into the mountains, but He did it (yeah, I refer to my vehicles as He. This is Vinny, short for Vincent Van Go)!

There was one particularly steep switchback, but I kept my foot on the floor and it climbed it, roaring the whole way, but chugging along! Temps rose, but stayed reasonably cool still and came right back down on the other side of the mountain. Ticked over 242k miles on this trip.

Kids were happy in the backseat after setting up my tablet on a cooler and playing them movies the whole ride of 4 and a half hours.

 

[Frag Maniac]

250 arduous miles into the mountains, but He did it (yeah, I refer to my vehicles as He. This is Vinny, short for Vincent Van Go)!

There was one particularly steep switchback, but I kept my foot on the floor and it climbed it, roaring the whole way, but chugging along! Temps rose, but stayed reasonably cool still and came right back down on the other side of the mountain. Ticked over 242k miles on this trip.

Kids were happy in the backseat after setting up my tablet on a cooler and playing them movies the whole ride of 4 and a half hours.

That poor guy HE needs a hood repaint!

In your defense though, I'm sure the combination of Colorado high altitude and sun do a number on the paint, especially a dark shade that absorbs so much of it.

 

[BeardyHat]

That poor guy HE needs a hood repaint!

In your defense though, I'm sure the combination of Colorado high altitude and sun do a number on the paint, especially a dark shade that absorbs so much of it.

The dash is pretty much obliterated as well, Colorado has that effect on stuff.

That said, I'll take the cracked dash and faded paint over rust any day of the week. I drove this van to Chicago about three years ago (and will again later this year) and noticed how many of these vans out there are missing entire pieces of their body due to rust and I can only imagine the horror show underneath.

And actually, I kind of love the shitbox look. People try really hard to avoid me in a way they don't when I'm in my little Honda.

 

[Frag Maniac]

The dash is pretty much obliterated as well, Colorado has that effect on stuff.

That said, I'll take the cracked dash and faded paint over rust any day of the week. I drove this van to Chicago about three years ago (and will again later this year) and noticed how many of these vans out there are missing entire pieces of their body due to rust and I can only imagine the horror show underneath.

And actually, I kind of love the shitbox look. People try really hard to avoid me in a way they don't when I'm in my little Honda.

I bought a 79 Corolla before I had my 82 Toyota Pickup. A guy in Montana owned the Corolla, between the weather there and mostly the salt they put on the roads, it was pretty rusted underneath. In fact the reason I switched to the pickup was one of the leaf springs on the Corolla rusted through. Up until that point it was quite the little mt bike trip car, could go just about anywhere.

I'm sure you must know what I'm talking about regarding the salt, being as many of the roads in Colorado get a lot of snow. Either you don't drive those roads until they're salt free, or not at all, or use another mode of transpo on them, because otherwise you'd likely have a lot of rust underneath that thing. I also know Colorado has one of the most dangerous highways due to avalanches.

 

[BeardyHat]

I bought a 79 Corolla before I had my 82 Toyota Pickup. A guy in Montana owned the Corolla, between the weather there and mostly the salt they put on the roads, it was pretty rusted underneath. In fact the reason I switched to the pickup was one of the leaf springs on the Corolla rusted through. Up until that point it was quite the little mt bike trip car, could go just about anywhere.

I'm sure you must know what I'm talking about regarding the salt, being as many of the roads in Colorado get a lot of snow. Either you don't drive those roads until they're salt free, or not at all, or use another mode of transpo on them, because otherwise you'd likely have a lot of rust underneath that thing. I also know Colorado has one of the most dangerous highways due to avalanches.

We actually don't use salt here! Our plow's use a combination of rocks (so everyone has a chipped/cracked windshield. It's technically illegal to have that here, but I've never been cited for it in the 25 years I've been driving) and Mag Chloride, which I guess is sort of a Salt-ish compound, but not salt itself?

At any rate, cars don't rust here. It can certainly happen, but it's anomolous to say the least. The plows also only do the main thoroughfares and sometimes not at all; typically we have so much sunshine that snow just doesn't stick around on the hard surfaces--or the soft ones, for that matter--so if it's just a "light" snow, like maybe a few inches, the plows often don't come out. The roads are usually quite warm from the sunshine, so the snow takes forever to stick to them and then it melts in a day or two without any intervention.

The only time I had a snow related road incident was the day after a snowstorm. The highway was completely clear except for one small patch under a shaded underpass, which was slushy; I ended-up hitting that and spinning out, crashing into another car that had done the exact same thing.

Also, very few avalanches in Denver

 

[Frag Maniac]

We actually don't use salt here! Our plow's use a combination of rocks (so everyone has a chipped/cracked windshield. It's technically illegal to have that here, but I've never been cited for it in the 25 years I've been driving) and Mag Chloride, which I guess is sort of a Salt-ish compound, but not salt itself?

At any rate, cars don't rust here. It can certainly happen, but it's anomolous to say the least. The plows also only do the main thoroughfares and sometimes not at all; typically we have so much sunshine that snow just doesn't stick around on the hard surfaces--or the soft ones, for that matter--so if it's just a "light" snow, like maybe a few inches, the plows often don't come out. The roads are usually quite warm from the sunshine, so the snow takes forever to stick to them and then it melts in a day or two without any intervention.

The only time I had a snow related road incident was the day after a snowstorm. The highway was completely clear except for one small patch under a shaded underpass, which was slushy; I ended-up hitting that and spinning out, crashing into another car that had done the exact same thing.

Also, very few avalanches in Denver

Strange, I've heard the chemical stuff causes rust just as bad if not worse. I know bleach also rusts steel pretty badly, so anything "chloride" sounding has me skeptical. At any rate you don't live near the high snowfall avalanche risk highway I was referring to, which is 550 if memory serves.

 

[BeardyHat]

Strange, I've heard the chemical stuff causes rust just as bad if not worse. I know bleach also rusts steel pretty badly, so anything "chloride" sounding has me skeptical. At any rate you don't live near the high snowfall avalanche risk highway I was referring to, which is 550 if memory serves.

I'm not much of an outdoorsman either, so going into the mountains is pretty rare for me.

But yeah, I dunno what it is, but they just don't. They'll develop some surface rust, but you can buy any old vehicle and it'll be flawless underneath. both my 04 and 98 look absolutely pristine from the bottom.

 

[Frag Maniac]

both my 04 and 98 look absolutely pristine from the bottom.

Yeah, probably becasue even though you live in pretty much THE most mountainous state in the US, you don't go to them much.

Fun fact, the lowest elevation in Colorado is higher than our most driven pass in Wa State on I-90, Snoqualmie.

 

[BeardyHat]

Even in the mountains it's the same! Mag Chloride and sand (plus chains required after a certain point.) The remote town I'm in currently has a remarkable amount of old vehicles still puttering around; makes me want to come up here and bring a car trailer to pick up all the fine examples of older cars I love.

Also, funny on that fact; I like going to low elevation and feeling like I'm some sort of superhero with my stamina.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Even in the mountains it's the same! Mag Chloride and sand (plus chains required after a certain point.) The remote town I'm in currently has a remarkable amount of old vehicles still puttering around; makes me want to come up here and bring a car trailer to pick up all the fine examples of older cars I love.

Also, funny on that fact; I like going to low elevation and feeling like I'm some sort of superhero with my stamina.

Yeah I know certain parts of Colorado, mostly it's SE part I think, have a lot of desert-like clime. In those places, yeah, it's like being in Arizona. Except for sun damage it's easy on cars, which is why you see a lot of car collectors in places like that, and people that go there from all over the country to find older cars in good condition.

We had a guy living at the prior apt building I lived in that had a disease that caused his red blood cells to be thin, making him low on energy. He said he was looking to move to a high altitude climate. Apparently living at high altitude makes your body produce more red blood cells.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Just out of nowhere, I slept until noon. Wow, do I feel different. It feels awesome. I don't feel like I could drop dead at any moment.

 

[Zed Clampet]

In the last year I've been on a rollercoaster of emotions from being elated moving into my nice new place, to worrying every day I'll be homeless soon. My hardcore Republican friend says the budget cut talks are all smoke and mirrors from the opposing side. I hope he's right, I've been homeless before for 3 years when I was much younger, it's no picnic.

I'm not sure what part of the budget cut talks would cause you to be homeless. but I wouldn't stress over anything Trump has said. Almost everything he says is a colossal exaggeration designed to make his opponents meet him somewhere in the middle, or to at least get them to the negotiation table. The more outrageous he talks, the more desperate his opponents become.

 

[Colif]

Just out of nowhere, I slept until noon. Wow, do I feel different. It feels awesome. I don't feel like I could drop dead at any moment.

careful, sleeping is a new experience for you, don't want to overdo it

After owning fish tank for two months I finally decided to use one of the Velcro tie points on back of case to tidy it up a little. I didn't have any Velcro straps spare, they all inside case... so one zip tie will have to do. I don't want to tighten it too much.

note: case would fail as a fish tank, too many openings.

 

[Frag Maniac]

careful, sleeping is a new experience for you, don't want to overdo it

After owning fish tank for two months I finally decided to use one of the Velcro tie points on back of case to tidy it up a little. I didn't have any Velcro straps spare, they all inside case... so one zip tie will have to do. I don't want to tighten it too much.

note: case would fail as a fish tank, too many openings.

I've noticed they now call pretty much any PC case with glass that wraps around one corner a "fish tank" case, but here's an aquarium PC that is completely submerged in mineral oil.

Too bad we can't have actual fish tank PCs, and then maybe someday we could train some Sucker Fish fish to clean it for us.

On a less fantastical note, our apt building was offered free tickets and an Uber ride to the local waterfront aquarium. I was bummed at first that the Sea Otter presentation was set for nearly 4 hrs after our leave time. At first there were no River Otters visible (sleeping under their fake rock cave I think), and the Sea Otters were just floating on their backs with nothing to do. So I took a long walk around the waterfront to check out all the sights.

When I came back, the River Otters were wrestling with each other, and swimming and running all over the place. If you squat down you can see them swim right up to you underwater, spiraling, with little bubbles all over them. I see why they sleep so late, they are quite active when awake.

The Sea Otter tank had a gal in there on the feeding platform that had thrown in a couple white plastic bottles about 5" square and about 24" long. They stuff strips of felt in them about 1/8" thick and 2" wide, and the Otters grab them while they're floating on their backs and shake the hell out of them until the felt comes out.

They were also putting ice cubes and trays of some kind of food out for them. They have a recording in their new building addition that says everything they're fed is frozen or previously frozen to make sure any bacteria is killed. I'm not sure if they feed them shellfish anymore, which I know can be frozen, but if they do, I'm guessing it's done during the 4:45 PM presentation.

 

[Colif]

I knew about the mineral oil ones. Shame fish can't live in them.

Can get cases now with 3 out of 4 sides are glass, so they approaching fish tanks... Lian Li and Coolermaster have them. Hard to hide cables in those really. Lian LI also has a 4 sided glass case with fans in the glass

so If they can perforate glass and let air in now, I really don't have an argument against it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

...so If they can perforate glass and let air in now, I really don't have an argument against it.

As long as they don't put mineral oil in those, cuz it would make for quite a mess!

 

[Colif]

I woke up today with a weird rash on my two feet and my right lower leg all the way up to my knee. its not anywhere above my knee AFAIK, I can't see it anywhere else.
My left leg has no marks and my right foot is mostly clear of them too, so its strange its the left foot and right leg that are marked.

It doesn't seem to hurt and I don't recall seeing it there yesterday. its below the surface, its not grazed skin per say.
I have made a doctors appointment for tomorrow, might as well get it looked at.

 

[BeardyHat]

I woke up today with a weird rash on my two feet and my right lower leg all the way up to my knee. its not anywhere above my knee AFAIK, I can't see it anywhere else.
My left leg has no marks and my right foot is mostly clear of them too, so its strange its the left foot and right leg that are marked.

It doesn't seem to hurt and I don't recall seeing it there yesterday. its below the surface, its not grazed skin per say.
I have made a doctors appointment for tomorrow, might as well get it looked at.

Weird one. Maybe something to do with blood flow? Not that I'm any sort of doctor. Also, you have large feet, which I am well familiar with. Next to my wife:

We made it back from our trip yesterday. All went well except for one weird issue where my van started hesitating in heavy traffic down the mountain. We pulled off at the next exit--which thankfully also had a port-o-potty-- and let it cool down; I checked the transmission fluid (improperly, so this could be wrong) and it was quite high, so I'm kind of wondering if the low speed traffic wasn't allowing the transmission to cool enough, causing the fluid to expand, which caused issues.

After letting it cool for 10 minutes or so, we started it back up and had no issues the rest of the way, so I'll have to investigate my hypothesis this week.

Glad to be home. I'm not much of a traveler; I do like it to some extent, but I'm just a homebody at heart and prefer to stay close to and rarely leave my house.

 

[Colif]

Weird one. Maybe something to do with blood flow? Not that I'm any sort of doctor. Also, you have large feet, which I am well familiar with. Next to my wife:

I am tall and thin, so maybe I need feet to keep me planted

My feet are strange as I had an accident about 25 years ago and my left foot didn't mend right, so I have a flat foot on left and a normal foot on right. Makes it difficult to get shoes. That and I have thin feet as well.

 

[BeardyHat]

I am tall and thin, so maybe I need feet to keep me planted

My feet are strange as I had an accident about 25 years ago and my left foot didn't mend right, so I have a flat foot on left and a normal foot on right. Makes it difficult to get shoes. That and I have thin feet as well.

Sounds like a double pain in the ass then. Every time I've ever bought shoes, due to my large feet, I have to basically just take what I can get (the only exception being boots), so to have a second issue to complicate things, well...

Was going to go pick up my dog today from my parents house, but my friend had his radiator blow in his car yesterday and has no way to get to work. He doesn't live too far from me and doesn't have the tools or the know-how so I offered to help him fix it today if he could find someone to cover his shift, so it looks like that's what I'll be doing today instead.

Should theoretically only take a few hours and I could still go get the dog, but projects always run into snags along the way, so we'll see.