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

[Sir Henry]

Found out today that my closest friend is gone. And I've been trying to strike a balance between checking in on him and not bothering him too much for the past half year, but it seems I didn't get the balance right. he's not responded to any of my texts or calls in over a month. I assumed he was busy. I suspect he did it to himself.

Very sorry to hear this. Hopefully it's not to late for their funeral/memorial service where you can get a bit of closure.

[Sorontar]

Found out today that my closest friend is gone.

Sorry to hear that. May happy memories of your times together stay strong with you.

Sorontar

[von Corax]

Found out today that my closest friend is gone.

Very sorry for your loss, rovingjack.

[von Corax]

A week ago I bought a Z-Wave smart light switch to control my front porch lights, and a USB ZigBee dongle to control it from a Raspberry Pi; at the same time I ordered a Pi 5 which arrived Thursday. Installing Home Assistant on the Pi was painlessly exciting; it immediately recognized the smart thermostat the house's previous owners had installed and automatically configured it.

The first GAAH: The Z-Wave light switch is not compatible with the ZigBee dongle.

Amazon Overnight to the rescue: yesterday evening I took delivery of a USB Z-Wave dongle which is compatible with both Home Assistant and the light switch.

The second GAAH: the light switch is too far away from the Pi's current location in the Laboratory, and I don't have an Ethernet cable long enough to close the distance. Tentative solution: purchase another Z-Wave switch to replace a light switch I have no need to automate just to bridge the gap. Stay tuned for updates.

[J. Wilhelm]

Tonight I'm distraught. My place of employment is one of those big box retailers and I've been here for roughly one year.  I'm used to being in a hyper-corporate environment and seeing employees come and go (revolving door), and a few get fired for not following rules, like timely attendance and such.  But it's very seldom that you see someone canned for theft or something more serious.


The thing is, you can almost tell who's a good employee and who's the kind to leave, perhaps even controversially.  But I was blindsided to learn my front end supervisor (allegedly) got fired, and this happened to the best supervisor I've ever seen.  I can't for the life of me fathom exactly what she could have done or even if she'd ever had TIME to do anything wrong!  Supervisors are mum and we only have rumours.

[von Corax]

A week ago I bought a Z-Wave smart light switch to control my front porch lights, and a USB ZigBee dongle to control it from a Raspberry Pi; at the same time I ordered a Pi 5 which arrived Thursday. Installing Home Assistant on the Pi was painlessly exciting; it immediately recognized the smart thermostat the house's previous owners had installed and automatically configured it.

The first GAAH: The Z-Wave light switch is not compatible with the ZigBee dongle.

Amazon Overnight to the rescue: yesterday evening I took delivery of a USB Z-Wave dongle which is compatible with both Home Assistant and the light switch.

The second GAAH: the light switch is too far away from the Pi's current location in the Laboratory, and I don't have an Ethernet cable long enough to close the distance. Tentative solution: purchase another Z-Wave switch to replace a light switch I have no need to automate just to bridge the gap. Stay tuned for updates.

Update: I got HA working over WiFi and moved the Pi closer to my front porch light switch. Once I figured out all the steps to configure the switch, it works! Wave yo' hands say "Yay!"

[frances]

Roving Jack.  I am sorry to hear about your friend.  It is horrible when one's friends start to disappear.  BTW have you ever considered fibromyalgia as the cause of all your symptoms?

[Xenos]

First the good: I found a comic I wrote when I was 12 yesterday evening, and my mom drew for me. It was in a binder from when I lived in Sudan.

Now the GAAAAH: Also in it was a napkin with lipstick I used to carry as "My lady's favor" from my girlfriend, we'll call her Calypso. We broke up (amicably!), and then... in 2020 she came back into my life. Now, them of you what know me, you know I'm married. What you don't know is we're polyam (happily so, many years, nesting partner is happy to be more out in the open about it these past few years now that her BF is able to be open about it as well--safety first!). So in April 2023, she asked if we should give it another go... I thought that'd be a good idea, my nesting partner seriously encouraged it, and so we went for it. She was re-diagnosed with Breast Cancer in May. Died in June 17...

Now I've got this napkin staring me in the face... I miss her so much.

Heh... She came back into my life because she was the attending nurse for one of my surgeries (nerve damage in my hand) in early 2020, right after the pandemic started. The nutjob told the doctor "I know this cat, they can close. Go ahead and get started on the next patient." And she sat there with me as I stitched my own hand closed. SMDH Crazy 152cm tall pixie cut redhead Brit NUTJOB. Absolutely insane. Favorite band was the Midnight, our song was Fire in the Sky.

It's been nearly a year and a half. Why does it still feel like a hole is in my chest?

[LukeHogbin]

Always hated this part of the year. Yesterday was my birthday (I'm 39 now) and today is what we call Day of remembrance of the dead, when people traditionally visit the graves of their loved ones and friends. I absolutely refuse to go because after my mother's death a few years back and my uncle and aunt passing earlier this year it just feels overwhelming. So I'm sitting on my sofa like a miserable pile of poo and drinking cheap awful wine.

[Xenos]

Watching the US Election results. It's absolutely dreadful. I'm going bonkers. Enough of this "Will they/Won't they!"

The whole system is absurd. I can't believe I'm sat here a bundle of anxiety watching this close of an election... especially between these two people.

[J. Wilhelm]

My Steampunk computer's power supply decided to die today.  I had just changed all the logins and passwords to all my important accounts and saved them in that computer's hard drive. 

Because I no longer have the convenience of having a Fry's store in town and it's been like a century since other shops like CompUSA (let's not even mention Radio Shack) have disappeared, I have to order it online, instead of being able to replace it today. Gah!

Luckily I have a very good memory and decided to be very formulaic in choosing the new credentials for all relevant websites.  So I'm not in any immediate danger of locking myself out of anything important, but you never know.

You see, I just recently lost one of my oldest email accounts, probably due to massive hacking at the company (I won't mention any names, but it's a major Internet company and you might see it in the news soon enough), and I'm unable to recover it because the recover methods referenced another mails service that this company later purchased in the 2000s. 

Since the whole company probably got hacked, then they locked several domain names.  The two accounts I own from that period belong to two of those domains, so they reference each other, so I'm locked out, and unable to recover either of them.  The parent company wanted my credit card (?) and driver's license to unlock me.  They won't take my passport as a valid ID ().  I smell something very rotten in this situation.  I thought it was better to let the 30 year old accounts go and just reset all my important accounts so as to not include those addresses. I did lose about 30 years of emails, though.  Family and friend's communications are now lost.

I could still travel about an hour on bus to the outer regions of the city proper, and buy an overly expensive ATX supply at Best Buy, but it's a ridiculous journey for something so simple.

I ended up placing an order online, to be delivered next week. Stupid and ridiculous anyway.

[Xenos]

My therapist promised me my second letter. The one I needed to get my surgery. You know, the BIG surgery. The most important surgery. To get rid of. You know. The bits.

Today, I find out they lied to me. They basically said "Haha, yeah, nah, yeah, nah, yeah, we were yankin' your chain. You should have seen the look on your face though! We don't actually give those letters out. Besides, are you sure you're ya know, actually trans?"

I have 11 days before my surgical consultation.

11 bleedin' days to get that sorted.

I can't well put into words just how screwed up that is of them to do.

I'm angry. I'm hurt. I'm panicking.

But most of all? I'm never trusting another skull jockey as long as I FUCKING live.

[Hez]

To all of you who hurt today, whose messages of pain I have read today, I have no words to heal your wounds or lessen your fear.  I am not close enough to offer a hug or a handshake.  I can only say that you were heard and that I care and wish the best for you.

[rovingjack]

laptop go boom. using desktop so old it needs an adapter with literal pins to work with a monitor that isn't CRT.

but what the hell, let's try making an online business or two with it anyway. get ahead to the impending great depression remake.

[Sorontar]

Very sorry to hear of this, Xenos. I have seen others have to go through a similar process but with a more favourable therapist/practitioner. I hope you too can end up with a positive outcome.

rovingjack, I too am working on a temporary machine because my old one went bung. I was just glad I managed to backup enough before it completely broke. I hope you have got what you need.

Sorontar

[rovingjack]

Have had episodes of what felt like asthma (which I never had before) off and on for a few weeks. Then nothing for a week. Made a peanut butter and sliced grape on rye last night and spent a few hours weezing, clearing my throat, coughing and trembling like I did during the Covid Vaccination shots.

Now I'm wondering if half my misery is allergies to food and/or environmental factors. or a mast cell disorder of some kind. sigh. whatever. Just tired of being miserable so often.

[LukeHogbin]

Dang, Xenos, that really sucks

rovingjack, perhaps seeing your GP and have an allergies test done might be a good idea ?

I have had dizziness problem for some time now and I finally figured out why. My current glasses are about a decade old and the right lens prescription is by now mismatched to my right eye. I really need to get around to going to my GP for an optician appointment and get new glasses one of these days.

[Xenos]

Thank you, all. To update the situation: My general practitioner, who referred me to my current endocrinologist, wrote me a letter. I don't know if it will suffice, as the wording under my state's legal system is... ambiguous at best. If it does not, my weekly therapist that I see for PTSD related to growing up in Darfur has offered to write one, but I won't be able to get that until after my appointment to schedule the consult. So the hope is I'll have the two letters in hand on the 4th, and they'll work with me about it if the one from my GP isn't good enough.

I'm slightly less freaking out, but no less manic (yay being bipolar 1 and this having tripped a fullblown mania episode--at least I'm aware of it, so know I'm off kilter as the 9 Hells).

I'm holding up as best I can, considering... Just now more irritated than anything else.

Ah well. C'est la vie, as they say.

[LukeHogbin]

Wishing you all the best, Xenos!

[Xenos]

Sort of a GAH sort of a happy? Last June, one of my partners passed away. Before she died, she set up her email account to randomly send me emails after her death, so I still get little surprises from time to time.

I love it. But I also hate it. I have that little piece of her. But it hurts. Every time I open one, it's like... for those few minutes, she's back. And then there's the eternal question of "When will they stop coming?" They're already getting fewer and farther between.

Iunno. On the one hand, it's nice to have that piece of her.

On the other hand, it's almost like it's keeping the wound opened.

By the same token, I'm gonna flip shit when the last one shows up.

Anyway, time for me to get some sleep. Been up for a solid 30 hours now (that's a whole 'nother GAH).

[rovingjack]

power outage, now main computer can't internet. something about IP address. I'm about to commit arson.

[The Bullet]

UPS!
AGAIN!

Ordered spare parts for my car restoration project.

Paid much money for UPS next das delivery.

Expected delivery 12:15 to 4:15 pm. That´s what the tracking said.

at 5:30 pm I phoned the hotline.

Yeees, there are a few delays but the parcel will be delivered until 7pm.

I relied on that (silly me) and we waited in the garage, beside the car and...nothing happened.

Next day I phoned the hotline.


Yeees, there are a few delays but the parcel will be delivered until 7pm.

But I paid for next day. This is not the service I paid for.

Nothing helpful on that hotline.

So I wrote an email.

"We apologise for the inconvenience"

This is no inconvenience. I paid money for a service I did not receive and as the hotline promised me I would reveice the parcel until 7pm the whole repair team waited.

Their next answer was unbelievable:
"our hotline folks are situated in Tunisia, India, Serbia,....you cannot believe them. You can only believe ME as I am in Hannover."

WTF???

I treat UPS as a system. If one interface tells me the parcel will arrive today why should I not believe them?
If I write an email or call the hotline I cannot choose if it is processed in Germany, Tunisia,....
I don´t care where the hotline folks sit. Natonality is not important in that respect.
The email person tried to tell me that UPS does not have a tracking for the vehicles nor do they have any means to contact the driver.
DHL, DPD,.... all provide a realtime tracking on the internet to the end user.
UPS HAS a means of contacting the driver so they can schedule a pick-up while the driver is on his tour.

Parcel came yesterday.

Wtill no further answer from the Customer "service".