GAAAAAHHHHHH Mk.VI: The Return of the Son of the 50ft GAAAH that struck back!

[Banfili]

Eye infection nearly gone, which is a plus,
BUT get to Dublin airport Hire Car place to find that having first paid in full for car could not have car because I could not produce a valid credit card, apparently needed for a 'security deposit' on said car!
Could I pay in cash? No, their system did not allow for cash payments! So, no car to take us to Tipperary this morning!

I don't understand why being willing and able to pay in full for something with my own money is not acceptable, but being prepared to pledge someone else's money for something is? Is here anywhere I can ask for a "Please Explain"?

So, it was off to the railway station for a train to Tipperary for my nephew and myself, and I still have to try and find a vehicle! Fortunately our landlord is very helpful and supportive, but not the most auspicious start - "all part of the adventure", I keep telling myself.

[J. Wilhelm]

Eye infection nearly gone, which is a plus,
BUT get to Dublin airport Hire Car place to find that having first paid in full for car could not have car because I could not produce a valid credit card, apparently needed for a 'security deposit' on said car!
Could I pay in cash? No, their system did not allow for cash payments! So, no car to take us to Tipperary this morning!

I don't understand why being willing and able to pay in full for something with my own money is not acceptable, but being prepared to pledge someone else's money for something is? Is here anywhere I can ask for a "Please Explain"?

So, it was off to the railway station for a train to Tipperary for my nephew and myself, and I still have to try and find a vehicle! Fortunately our landlord is very helpful and supportive, but not the most auspicious start - "all part of the adventure", I keep telling myself.

It's traditional to need a valid credit card in the US for renting anything, be it a "drive it yourself" moving var/lorry, a car, or a hotel room. Having said that, once I managed to rent a hotel room in San Francisco just using my bank card when I complained I did not have a credit card. Luckily for me, a TV station was paying for the hotel, but it was kind of sacry to be in downtown San Franciso with no place to stay overnight.

I always thought it was because they have the policy of  hedging their losses should the renter refuse to pay. Direct money from a checking account is no good because the renter can order the bank not to pay or suspend payments, whereas credit companies can arbitrate.

[J. Wilhelm]

My gah!  I just discovered a huge cavity in one of my upper molars. I felt no pain at all, until a couple of months ago, when I noticed that ample food inexplicably and painfully got stuck between two of my molars.

When flossing, I though it was odd that so much food would get compressed like that in the small space between my teeth. You can't see the cavity from the outside, and need a tiny mirror to see it as it is actually starting vertically from the bottom of the tooth between two cusps, and leads to the space between molars, like a tiny funnel of food.

Aaargh! I may need emergency repairs. At least I know how to prevent food from getting stuck and how to remove it from there now 

[Sir Henry]

I don't understand why being willing and able to pay in full for something with my own money is not acceptable, but being prepared to pledge someone else's money for something is? Is here anywhere I can ask for a "Please Explain"?

I had this in Spain last month, but luckily my wife has a credit card so for an extra 10 euros they let us have the car. Sorry to hear that you got caught out.

They said it was in case of a major accident, where the credit card company would cover any costs whereas your average customer's bank account wouldn't. Having been driving for over 40 years without an accident, it just feels like a way to grab an extra tenner.

[Banfili]

Have realised, after reading through pages of stuff from different hire car companies, that the several hundred euro extra demanded on a credit card is purely and simply to fill the car up if you return it with less fuel than you picked it up with!

My B&B landlord, being a lovely young fella, is helping me sort out the car problem. This is not a GAH!

[rovingjack]

with hotel rooms and I guess rental cars I seem to remember hearing it's to do with covering costs to bring it back to the state it was in before renting it. In the case of hotels that to be able to charge you again to cover anything you take from the room (towels, robe, shower curtain, etc) or repair things like tears in the rugs dings in walls cut sheets or matress or broken lamps, tv or phone. They can;t take those out in small portions from everybody, because the rates end up looking less competative, so you break/take it you buy it. And generally they only get to find out what you 'buy' after you've left. Thus additional charges to your bill.

Pretty much the same with cars. Seat repair, broken stereo, stains, spills etc.

[Banfili]

Car problem all sorted, if expensive. Going up to Dublin on the train to collect.

[Caledonian]

Delivering mail in a nearby city... it's 30°C out there and i cannot handle heat too well. My drinks got warm and didn't really help cooling me down anymore.
My head started pulsing and i was forced to take a break. For which i didn't really have time, because i have to deliver papers tonight.
I am looking up against doing the papers...it's still hot out.

[Drew P]

^Backpack with ice packs wrapped in towels surrounding water bottles and freeze 1 or 2 bottles or most of them and use them instead of the ice packs. They will thaw out enough to be ready for drinking.

[The Bullet]

Some drivers!!!!!

Being a voluntary fireman I had to drive today.
Siren on, lights on but some driver completely ignored us.

How can you ignore a 7.5 ton, bright red car?

Where`s my cannon when I need it?

I would like one of the AVENGER cannons as fitted to the A-10 "Warthog" so there will not be much left.....

[James Harrison]

Some drivers!!!!!

Being a voluntary fireman I had to drive today.
Siren on, lights on but some driver completely ignored us.

How can you ignore a 7.5 ton, bright red car?

Where`s my cannon when I need it?

I would like one of the AVENGER cannons as fitted to the A-10 "Warthog" so there will not be much left.....

I have found that the brighter and more colourful the car, the less visible it apparently is.  I say this on the back of ten months' experience of driving a bright flame red car.... and getting cut up/ pulled out on pretty much everytime I go out driving.   

[von Corax]

Some drivers!!!!!

Being a voluntary fireman I had to drive today.
Siren on, lights on but some driver completely ignored us.

How can you ignore a 7.5 ton, bright red car?

Where`s my cannon when I need it?

I would like one of the AVENGER cannons as fitted to the A-10 "Warthog" so there will not be much left.....

Don't your trucks have water cannons?

Actually, studies have discovered that red is a relatively poor colour for visibility. Unfortunately, the best colour is one which might be described as "vomit green," and fire crews universally refuse to drive anything that colour.

[LukeHogbin]

I would like one of the AVENGER cannons as fitted to the A-10 "Warthog" so there will not be much left.....

I don't think GAU-8 is suitable for mounting on cars. There would not be much left of either the offending vehicles or your fire truck. Plus, I don't think picatinny rails are standard kit for the GAU-8. 

[J. Wilhelm]

Some drivers!!!!!

Being a voluntary fireman I had to drive today.
Siren on, lights on but some driver completely ignored us.

How can you ignore a 7.5 ton, bright red car?

Where`s my cannon when I need it?

I would like one of the AVENGER cannons as fitted to the A-10 "Warthog" so there will not be much left.....

I have found that the brighter and more colourful the car, the less visible it apparently is.  I say this on the back of ten months' experience of driving a bright flame red car.... and getting cut up/ pulled out on pretty much everytime I go out driving.   

Back in the days when I drove nice cars, I would constantly get pulled when driving a new Ford Mustang (2005). The colour was all black. Prior to that I had owned a brand new candy apple red Mustang (1997) for 7 years, and briefly a new 1994 Mustang, same colour for one year; I never got pulled even once in either of the red cars. On the 2005 black one, I ended up in traffic court fighting a traffic fine.

Then when things got tougher, I ended up with my ancient 1989 Ford Escort as the only thing that bankruptcy (admisnistration) court allowed me to keep. Twas a light metallic blue, and as the car got older, the cops started pulling me over more and more. Eventually even the tenants in the apartment complex started complaining that "someone had abandoned a car" and they wanted to tow my car.

The harassment stopped in 2005 when I personally painted the car a dark blue (car body shops refused to paint the car on account that the trimming on the windows was too old and unavailable if they needed to replace a window mount... Then years later close to the end of life of the car, the paint job started peeling off, and cops started pulling me over again (my paint job actually outlasted the factory paint job!) I had that car for 20 years overall.

So yes. There are other psychological reasons involved in picking a car out of a crowd. I don't think that red cars attract that much attention as people think.

Now I'm dirt poor and I don't have a car. So I don't have that problem anymore  Now I'm really invisible. My boot actually is on one of my feet, not in the back of my car And by the time I can drive again, cars will be driving themselves anyway.

[Caledonian]

^Backpack with ice packs wrapped in towels surrounding water bottles and freeze 1 or 2 bottles or most of them and use them instead of the ice packs. They will thaw out enough to be ready for drinking.

Thanks for the advice!

[Inflatable Friend]

The Gaaaaaaaaah of the month for me; life choices.

On the one hand I have a job that pays quite well, I live/work in what would widely be considered a holiday destination. I can afford to buy a house/apartment (not a huge one, but a step on the ladder so to speak). My wife also has a job she doesn't mind, plus we've just sorted out a preschool for our son.

Buuuut... I'm immensely dissatisfied in work and have a hankering to really push my career, where I am now there will be no or minimal chance to progress.

On the other side I've (possibly, still not confirmed but I'm confident it'll be offered) got the opportunity to relocate to HQ in a new position where I'll definitely have a real chance to develop and progress my career. But it'll mean we cant afford to buy a house (north London), our wages would effectively be cut and while my wife could keep the same role it's likely she'll either not enjoy it or quit and need to find a new one.

Sigh.

Though actually typing it out like that clarifies it a lot.

[Drew P]

So progress in career with no future increase in pay?

[J. Wilhelm]

The Gaaaaaaaaah of the month for me; life choices.

On the one hand I have a job that pays quite well, I live/work in what would widely be considered a holiday destination. I can afford to buy a house/apartment (not a huge one, but a step on the ladder so to speak). My wife also has a job she doesn't mind, plus we've just sorted out a preschool for our son.

Buuuut... I'm immensely dissatisfied in work and have a hankering to really push my career, where I am now there will be no or minimal chance to progress.

On the other side I've (possibly, still not confirmed but I'm confident it'll be offered) got the opportunity to relocate to HQ in a new position where I'll definitely have a real chance to develop and progress my career. But it'll mean we cant afford to buy a house (north London), our wages would effectively be cut and while my wife could keep the same role it's likely she'll either not enjoy it or quit and need to find a new one.

Sigh.

Though actually typing it out like that clarifies it a lot.

That's a tough one. I guess my opinion is very pessimistic given my experience.  But I'll throw it into the rink. Disregard as you please.

Consider this: you can live miserably in an advanced wealthy country, with the eternal promise of a better future (based mostly on the notion that your country's wealth will advance you), or you can live comfortably in a slightly less wealthy country with all the inconveniences that entails,  plus little or no prospect for advancement.

Let me put it bluntly: Advancement opportunities by changing countries may be more convenient for your children that you. Partly because children are meant to fly on their own, and will not be attached to anyone until they start their own adult life.

I saw my grandparents lose everything they had in Mexico, basically an estate conservatively valued at $5 million USD in 2016 money, because they got scared about the Mexican crash of 1985, and thought that moving to the US, following their children would advance their dreams.

Overall, my family's American business collapsed after 20 years of really struggling to make it in the US. First collapsing a business in California in 1992, and losing nearly everything, then losing my grandmother to heart disease (no doubt aggravated by the financial stress), only to briefly rise for 12 years, finally collapsing in 2007, and my grandfather losing his mind. As a consequence from that, my life was destroyed as well, and I have lost at  least 10 years so far (not counting the 5 years when I participated in the business -  not really a loss,  I made that choice).  So 15 years of non productive life.

Hindsight being 20/20, my grandparents should not have left Mexico during tough times, and instead they should have relied on renting half of their property,  sending me away on my own to the US.  In the end I would have been independent, they would've kept their house, and they could have considered coming to the US much later (or not).  Truth is,  those moving decisions entail a lot of risk, for you and your family. Once you lose your homestead, you may never get it back. The reason being, primarily, Murphys Law when you are performing a gamble like that. Once you start chipping away your real estate capital, getting it back is more difficult without a growing income. Only if you are reasonably sure your future is ironclad secure should you abandon owning a home...  In my opinion.  

[rovingjack]

not that you need another persons perspective, but:
My instinct if I were faced with your circumstances would be to hold onto secure stability. I'm inclined to think that unless it's completely soul crushing and you work more than 50 hours a week at it, start treating your job as the activity you do part time as generation of resources to fuel outside passions.

I got to a point where I could enjoy interacting with customers and reorganizing shelves, because it was time to connect with the outside world and gain funds so that when I get home I can write novels, do some wood working, repair thrift store finds, bricolage, and cook strange new food ideas.

I am those things, the job is something I do for a break, change of pace, social connection and generate funds for mad science a roof and not starving.

[J. Wilhelm]

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

[LukeHogbin]

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

It's usually the 1000uF (or thereabouts) 25V caps that go *poof*, which are easy to replace.

[qubehead]

My employer has raised the starting wage by a substantial amount in order, they say, to attract and keep the best people. Fine, but did they raise my pay in proportion? No, not to put too fine a point on it, they didn't. So where does that leave me? It leaves me, by golly, making a whole whopping 75 cents/hour above the new starting wage. Yep. That's what I have to show for TWELVE AND A HALF YEARS of hard work.   Why yes, I am bitter about it. Thanks for asking. One of their best and most experienced people, never called out sick, only missed two days (one for surgery, one a mistaken 'day off', my fault) and this is the appreciation I get. Shabby treatment, this, very shabby indeed. I had expected better from people I've known for over a decade. But at age 50, what chance do I have of finding something else half as good? Picture a snowball, surrounded by the roaring flames of perdition, a scarlet horned Gallagher poised with his mallet. SevenEves nailed that one.

[Siliconous Skumins]

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

It's usually the 1000uF (or thereabouts) 25V caps that go *poof*, which are easy to replace.

Yup, caps are Number one cause of problems, shortly followed by burned out CCFL tubes in the backlight, and finally the main PSU unit can often have issues - again it's often down to bad caps.  Basically it's all easily repairable if you have a little basic electronics knowledge - you don't even need test equipment if you simply replace any electrolytic cap *OVER* 10uF, especially any that are bulged at the top or base or have split and leaked the electrolyte. Don't worry about exactly matching the value of the caps, anything "near enough" will work (yours were probably out of spec LOOONG before the monitor craped out!), just make sure that any that say "Low ESR" are replaced with Low ESR type caps - otherwise you will quickly see the insides of that new cap...
Hint -  you can usually find enough similar value caps and low ESR caps inside old ATX PSUs and on PC motherboards, so keep an eye out for any old PCs that have been dumped, and scavenge the parts for free.

As for the backlight, tubes are available (just measure the size and order), but you can actually replace them with thin strips of surface mount LEDs on a PCB designed as a drop in replacement (or even modified LED strip / rope light sold via various internet outlets of cheap Chinese stuff). Sometimes the CCFL is not completely dead, but is now so old that it draws too much power from the inverter board, and the monitor shuts down. In this case you can usually drive the CCFL tubes directly via a common cheap CCFL inverter used in PC case lighting and car modifications. Just hook it up to a 12V supply and you are all set. The tubes will be heavily over-driven, but they should last another couple of years before they pop.
   

Google search "replace ccfl backlight" and similar terms to see alternative ideas for fixing.

[J. Wilhelm]

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

It's usually the 1000uF (or thereabouts) 25V caps that go *poof*, which are easy to replace.

I may have one of those lying around somewhere.  I'll have to open and check though

[J. Wilhelm]

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

It's usually the 1000uF (or thereabouts) 25V caps that go *poof*, which are easy to replace.

New Gah. My computer monitor just died on me. I'm down to my tablet and iPad until I can get a new one.  Expect a lot of typos in my posts, folks, at least for the next few days.

It's usually the 1000uF (or thereabouts) 25V caps that go *poof*, which are easy to replace.

Yup, caps are Number one cause of problems, shortly followed by burned out CCFL tubes in the backlight, and finally the main PSU unit can often have issues - again it's often down to bad caps.  Basically it's all easily repairable if you have a little basic electronics knowledge - you don't even need test equipment if you simply replace any electrolytic cap *OVER* 10uF, especially any that are bulged at the top or base or have split and leaked the electrolyte. Don't worry about exactly matching the value of the caps, anything "near enough" will work (yours were probably out of spec LOOONG before the monitor craped out!), just make sure that any that say "Low ESR" are replaced with Low ESR type caps - otherwise you will quickly see the insides of that new cap...
Hint -  you can usually find enough similar value caps and low ESR caps inside old ATX PSUs and on PC motherboards, so keep an eye out for any old PCs that have been dumped, and scavenge the parts for free.

As for the backlight, tubes are available (just measure the size and order), but you can actually replace them with thin strips of surface mount LEDs on a PCB designed as a drop in replacement (or even modified LED strip / rope light sold via various internet outlets of cheap Chinese stuff). Sometimes the CCFL is not completely dead, but is now so old that it draws too much power from the inverter board, and the monitor shuts down. In this case you can usually drive the CCFL tubes directly via a common cheap CCFL inverter used in PC case lighting and car modifications. Just hook it up to a 12V supply and you are all set. The tubes will be heavily over-driven, but they should last another couple of years before they pop.
   

Google search "replace ccfl backlight" and similar terms to see alternative ideas for fixing.

Thanks guys.

It isn't the CFL (I think) but rather an issue detecting the vga signal.  Basically as soon as there is an input in VGA signal, it works normally for 5 seconds and then the screen goes black. Cycling the on/off button will regain another 5 seconds of image, and then will shut down again. I tested with another power supply and it had the same issues.  I changed the big VGA monitor for a small 7 inch one,  and that  worked normally with the computer.  So I surmise is its some interface circuit inside the monitor.