Nate552

Texas is on fire. East of Austin (Bastrop) is having the worst of it, and there are 14 major fires near me. There just aren't enough fire fighters to go around. This evening, the sky was an eery color from the ash. It looks like a storm building, but it's smoke....

ridethecliche

Back in Boston.

The weekend was a huge success and a lot of fun, but very intense.

Turning off the phone for the entirety of a getaway can do wonders for a relationship.

Also, we bought the Eureka 2XT. It poured like crazy last night. We were dry. I think our clothes got soaked though. That was probably because we threw our soaking clothes in with the rest of our stuff. Too much red wine does that. oops...

I also decided to turn our coals (for cooking) into a campfire when the rain started. It was 3 logs high and stayed alive through the entirety of the storm. Awesome!

bostongarden

A friend just sent me some pics. Scary stuff!!!

carpediemracing 

How come I have epiphanies so late at night? Trying to preserve the ideas/thoughts. I'm getting old and forget things otherwise.

patentcad

See if it still seems epiphanistic in the cruel light of morning.

kensuf

Gear assembly & function, ingress, donning, breathing, regulator purges and clears, review mask clears but w/scuba, regulator recovery (both sweep and tank tilt), introduction to hovering, egress, break-down and cleaning. All this I will be teaching this morning in a nice rain.

shovelhd

You could do it in your sleep.

waterrockets 

Farking brush fires all around and in Austin now. Temps have cooled, but wind is spreading embers like, well, wildfire. I don't believe I've seen significant rain since May. There was one five-minute storm that left a puddle in our street, but that boiled off in about 15 minutes.

waterrockets 

Ummm, this is Austin (in the foreground). That fire is 16 miles long and 6 miles across:

ridethecliche

^^Holy crap!^^

--------------

I have a facebook privacy question.

I put up pictures often (from trips etc), but apparently even though I share only with friends, the albums are open and are visible to friends of friends and are public. I have no idea what's going on.

Does anyone have a clue?

shovelhd

Damn.

jwible

Yes, you're putting stuff up on Facebook that you want private.

TheKillerPenguin

Is this the place for rants? No? Too bad.

I just landed a new job. The job is fine, low stress, and will work very well for me. I like it.

The downside is that my car was towed from the apartment complex I was sleeping over at. As I am in the process of moving into the area my job is located, I do not yet have an apartment. I thus rely on the kindness of my friends for places to stay.

Apparently, my car was parked in front of a building that is still under construction (but has no signs indicating so, even though the building looks finished from the outside). The maintenance guy claims he went around and knocked on every tenant's door to see if the car had an owner, but for some reason he neglected to use the doorbells conveniently placed next to every tenant's door. He also claimed that all tenants were aware of not being allowed to park there, which was news to the tenants whose apartment I was staying in.

I argued with the maintenance guy, who again informed me that he knocked (but did not use a doorbell) at every tenant's door, and that all residents knew parking was off limits there (which is not true). Argued with the tow truck driver, who said he was just doing his job and couldn't not tow my car at that point. Argued with his boss on the phone and explained that I literally just got a job and am in the process of moving down here, and thus have no money to pay for the tow, and he said that it didn't matter, the car does not leave the lot until he gets paid. I offered what I can afford + collateral, and he wouldn't take it. I offered to let him keep my driver's license, and he said that he had been stiffed too many times in the past to do that, and again reiterated that it must be paid in full before I can get my car back.

I called the apartment complex's caretaker, but only got the answering machine. I left a message identifying myself as the owner of the towed car, stated I was staying at my friend's place (whose rent is already paid in full for the duration of the lease), and that I had been considering moving into the complex (which was also true). I will be calling her again in a couple of hours. I am now sitting in a coffee shop pretty pissed off, waiting for a couple of hours to pass so I can negotiate with a person that is probably going to tell me there's nothing she can do for me, and that whatever relevant bulletin indicating not to park where I parked was posted 4 months ago in the unused basement of an inconspicuous abandoned building 3 miles down the road. It won't matter that the building burned down 3 months ago, and that the bulletin was written in Chinese. It was also my fault (and my friends' faults) for not hearing somebody knock on the downstairs front door of this second story apartment.

But on the plus side, the job really is nice, and quite easy.

edit: Just got off the phone with the complex manager. She was super, super helpful about everything, and is calling the tow company to resolve the issue.

carpediemracing 

Still does, but a lot of times my ideas fails the morning test.

Was up until almost 1 AM working on it (it's text related).

waterrockets 

I lost a car that way back when I was a poor bike racer. I just couldn't afford to get it out. They bought the title off me for about 1/4 what the vehicle was worth. *@&#!! My Jeep was parked all day, as I just rode my bike to get around. The complex owner assumed it was abandoned and didn't run, and had it towed. No matter what threats I made, they wouldn't get the Jeep back for me, and I had no resources for another angle.

I hope you get it resolved smother than I

jwible

Once a car is towed it's pretty much at the mercy of the guys at the impound lot unless it was towed illegally. Since it was towed from private property you're pretty much at the mercy of the impound guys. I seriously doubt the complex owner is going to care at all about a guests car getting towed.

TheKillerPenguin

Heh, that is definitely not an option. My bike (and a pair of zipps) are in the car.

ridethecliche

I actually didn't think it was a big deal, but I can respect it if someone else thinks otherwise.

If someone was like, "never put a picture of me or us up on facebook ever", then that's different. This was an, "I think that's a little too much", and I could see it. So lesson learnt for the future and won't do again.

I put up things for my friends/family to see. I don't want their friends (2nd and 3rd hand) to see it. Apparently sharing with friends doesn't make that happen. It's just really strange.

carpediemracing 

I think you can specify in the pictures who can see it. Friends only, friends of friends, etc.

I hope you get this resolved. It totally sucks.

Also I've ranted here. If you don't rant too much you get support.

substructure

Daughter just got her license today. <gulp>

carpediemracing 

You need my 92 HP Civic which has upgraded brakes and tires/wheels/suspension and just a driver side airbag.

botto 

don't forget to advise our young colleague to refrain from sharing too much.

echappist

TKP, i'm very sorry to hear that.

I might be prudent for you to borrow some $$ from your parents and get out of this jam as some towing companies will also charge you a "storage fee." Take the hit now. Years down the road, locate where the building manager lives and pop his tires and shove sugar into his gas tank. As they say in the Sopranos, "revenge is like serving cold cuts" (sic).

TheKillerPenguin

No no, it's okay. I omitted my SS# from the soliloquy.

rankin116

I was assigned to Prattsville on Monday for the Labor for Your Neighbor thing. Devastating. Is there anything I can do to help up in the Jay area this coming Sunday? I'd be happy to make the trip and lend a hand.