Interesting times

[howeird]

In coocoup news, the curfew has been lifted in Pattaya, Phuket and Samui, in the interests of tourist $$. Bangkok undercover cops have made a few needless arrests of individual protesters, but the publicity will make that stop, I think. If you want a coherent tutorial on why the coup is (as I believe) a Good Thing™, here is one:

Ignore the Perkins interview toward the end, it's irrelevant.

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Woke up on time and was dressed by 8 and on the computer at 8:30 when the Fuzzy worker who was there to rewire the bathroom light could not identify the doorbell. I don't know how long he pounded on the door, but I eventually answered it.

Left at 9 to vote and go to work, what should have been a 15 minute job of removing the faceplate from the wall switch and disconnecting two wires from one and connecting them to the other was not done. Instead, he removed the light and the fan, and couldn't figure out what to do next. He was out on the driveway calling for help when I left. After voting, maybe 15 minutes later, I swung by to see if he was done, but he had parked his truck backed-in into the carport, and was sitting on the truck bed looking hopeless. I drove past (he didn't look up) and got to work.

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At work, note from boss telling me to run the video through an analyzer, which I did not remember how to do from a live feed. Neither did anyone who was available to help. Turns out I needed to records a file, and analyze that. So I worked till noon on this cockamaimie project which boss should have told the salescreature enough already. Every test showed the files had numerous errors, were not even close to compliant with the specs. I wrote that up into the bug report and Chinese telephone happened. The guy whose baby this is insisted the files he had made worked fine, but he was all apples and oranges. I sent him the apples from my tree, he saw the errors, and now he wants to do a full Freudian analysis. This is all an effort to give the customers a work-around for a feature which won't be in the product for about 9 months. There are much better ways to do this work-around than using open sores command line applications. Any off the shelf video editor should be able to make these files.

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Somewhere in there I also tested and verified two minor bug fixes.

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Home at 5:30, because I had a guy coming over to sell me long term care coverage sponsored by the State of CA Department of Health Services. We had talked at length on the phone twice, he kept asking me the same things over and over. I figured in person he could show me the program and give me some forms to apply, and he'd get a commission. Instead he wastes an hour asking the same questions multiple times, telling me that my diabetes would prevent me from qualifying for the state program, and trying to sell me private insurance. But he refused to name an insurance company, or give any details of the plan except if I rolled $100k from my IRA into his pre-tax program, if I became 80% disabled the plan would pay $22k a year for life toward long-term care. That's about 3 months in a nursing home, I know but didn't say.  He thought he was there to get my money. I sent him away.

Looked him up online. His "company" isn't listed anywhere. BBB has never heard of him or his company. The State's license lookup shows he has been selling insurance for 6 years, but he's signed up to represent 49 different (small) companies, and has not completed any of his training except to sell long-term care insurance. He has no email, no web presence. Loser.

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Bacon, olives and pickles for dinner. Olives are fruit, and pickles are veggies, right?  Mint chip ice cream for dinner. I have some blueberries, but I think those will be part of a well balanced breakfast.

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Tested the Fuzzy work. The shower light now comes on with the fan instead of with the main light. The fan and shower lights are back in place. Yay. One more attention to detail FAIL, he phoned and told me he had left the paperwork (final bill) on the kitchen counter. Fromn work I had looked via webcam, and it took a while, because it was on the kitchen island, under a bottle of cooking oil. And yes, when I got home the paperwork had a big oily stain on it.

The final damage was $1150 over the original estimate. $285 for the light in the shower, which I had told him I wanted before he wrote the estimate, but in his 25 years he had only installed showers for the blind and vampires, so he had no concept of a shower with a light inside it. So it wasn't on the estimate. It definitely was not worth more than $75, if he had wired it to the shower wall switch when they moved that wall and the switch.

And $865 to re-tile the whole floor, which really only needed two tiles to fill in the gap created by removing the cabinet. But he had warned me he would have to re-tile the floor if he couldn't match tiles. Truth is his guys shattered the tiles they needed to remove, so they had to do the whole floor. Or something.

Anyhow, I printed a check for the final amount, and will not hire him for any more work.

Coincidentally, the inspection results from the park office were in my slot, and they did not need anything done except clear off the crap the remodeling folks had left on the driveway, which has already been done. No washing or painting required.

I still want to have the place repainted, but not until after Worldcon. If I have any money left.

A cooling system is a higher priority. I think I'll email the mfg rep about that.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
1-on-1, maybe. He's postponed the last 2
TBD  

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

$285 for a shower can light - seems like a lot.

I've had mine for about 20 years now - the round metal frame around the edge of the glass is all peeling and rusty. It doesn't seem to bother me much, but it's on my mental list of things to deal with when I have money. Replacing the rusty part should be simple, but most of the chains I went to 20 years ago have gone out of business and been replaced by Home Depot, so whatever brand and/or model it was probably doesn't exist, and getting one that exact size with the screw holes in the right place won't be as simple as I'd like it to be. Had I known it was going to rust like that, I'd have perhaps done something different.

[howeird]

Yeah, the charge for the light should have been 0. I was expecting a fully enclosed shower structure with a combination regular and heat lamp fixture inside it, but they gave me a shell which did not reach the ceiling, so the light was installed by cutting a hole in the ceiling.

I don't expect to live another 20 years, so...