Minor things that bother you

[1995hoo]

It's not "minor" to me, but I recognize that in the scheme of things it is. Our cat's health has declined significantly and suddenly over the past week, yet the vet and the animal hospital can't find anything in particular that's wrong with her aside from arthritis in one leg (which we've known about, and treated, for a year or two) and just plain old age (June 11 would be her 18th birthday, which for a cat is apparently the equivalent of 88 years old for a person). We adopted her in late 2021 when she was 14. Her prior owner had to go into memory-assisted living and was not allowed to have a pet for the understandable reason that memory-impaired patients forget to feed the pet, clean up after it, etc., and it imposes an unfair burden on the staff. So we adopted her and we've had three and a half great years. I always knew we'd have less time, rather than more; Ms1995hoo probably knew that too but doesn't want to admit it. As I was typing that last sentence, the cat jumped down off the couch and stumbled when she landed on the floor (which has never happened before today). She looked baffled by it. But then she changed her mind and jumped back up without any trouble (and she is sitting sort of hunched over with her face in her favorite blanket).

If I were making the decision myself, as much as it pains me to say it I would probably have her put down this week, most likely sooner rather than later, because it's clear to me she's miserable about something and is going downhill quickly. I don't want her to suffer. But my wife is resisting, which I guess I understand as well—I don't want to make that decision either, of course.

Sorry if I am rambling. Very tough evening in our house and I just need to get it off my chest.

[kkt]

It's so painful to lose a pet.

[SectorZ]

This made me feel for Arizona taxpayers, and to an extent all of us with the trickle down effect of federal funding...

The Arizona State Police are running billboards to encourage police to move down there and work for them. I know this because I am literally seeing them 3,000 miles away in Massachusetts. I imagine the cost of this to potentially yield zero people is a colossal waste.

The Clark County (NV) School District has job fairs in Oklahoma sometimes. Although in that case the pitch is more "Come work where we'll treat you better than you're being treated now." I can't imagine Arizona can provide a working environment, pay, and benefits better than they were getting in Massachusetts, though.

The state police in Mass were treated pretty poorly by the guy currently ruining the NCAA, but that was mostly 3-5 years ago so feelings may be different now.

FWIW, our state police have had endless scandals going on now for over a decade so maybe they're looking for the handful that do want to bail for more respectable pastures.

[hbelkins]

It's not "minor" to me, but I recognize that in the scheme of things it is. Our cat's health has declined significantly and suddenly over the past week, yet the vet and the animal hospital can't find anything in particular that's wrong with her aside from arthritis in one leg (which we've known about, and treated, for a year or two) and just plain old age (June 11 would be her 18th birthday, which for a cat is apparently the equivalent of 88 years old for a person). We adopted her in late 2021 when she was 14. Her prior owner had to go into memory-assisted living and was not allowed to have a pet for the understandable reason that memory-impaired patients forget to feed the pet, clean up after it, etc., and it imposes an unfair burden on the staff. So we adopted her and we've had three and a half great years. I always knew we'd have less time, rather than more; Ms1995hoo probably knew that too but doesn't want to admit it. As I was typing that last sentence, the cat jumped down off the couch and stumbled when she landed on the floor (which has never happened before today). She looked baffled by it. But then she changed her mind and jumped back up without any trouble (and she is sitting sort of hunched over with her face in her favorite blanket).

If I were making the decision myself, as much as it pains me to say it I would probably have her put down this week, most likely sooner rather than later, because it's clear to me she's miserable about something and is going downhill quickly. I don't want her to suffer. But my wife is resisting, which I guess I understand as well—I don't want to make that decision either, of course.

Sorry if I am rambling. Very tough evening in our house and I just need to get it off my chest.

Ear infection or kidney failure are two likely culprits. That decision is never an easy one; maybe the vet can figure out what's going on.

A cat's health can take a turn for the worse pretty quickly. I've seen it happen all too often.

[1995hoo]

We talked to the vet about 20 minutes ago and she pretty much confirmed what my gut told me—if the steroid shot they gave her last Thursday didn't help, anything they can do will simply be delaying the inevitable. She told us we have two options—bring her in, or the former owner of the practice can come do it here. But if we have her come here, the cremation procedure is a little more complex in that this doctor (whom we've never met) takes her remains with her, the crematory picks them up from her house, and then they mail them back to us. If we get it done at the vet's office, they keep the remains and the crematory picks them up and drops them back off there. I told my wife I am inclined to opt for the latter route simply because it feels like a more secure chain of custody.

Looking like most likely sometime Wednesday. We have to decide on when and call them. But it won't be today.

[dvferyance]

Dillard's would come to small markets like Grand Junction CO and Sioux Falls SD but will not come to bigger markets like Milwaukee or even Chicago. Try to make sense out of that.

[Max Rockatansky]

Dillard's would come to small markets like Grand Junction CO and Sioux Falls SD but will not come to bigger markets like Milwaukee or even Chicago. Try to make sense out of that.

No competition in smaller markets.

[thenetwork]

Dillard's would come to small markets like Grand Junction CO and Sioux Falls SD but will not come to bigger markets like Milwaukee or even Chicago. Try to make sense out of that.

The Dillard's in Grand Junction is an interesting store.  They tore down the old Sears anchor store in Mesa Mall to build the new Dillard's.  Then they decide not to open until 11AM, while the mall stores open earlier.  And when the store is closed, they roll down corrugated metal security walls on all their outside exits -- no other anchor store does this and crime is not THAT bad here.

And when the store IS open, the parking area around the store, as well as the store traffic inside, are about as much as Sears had when they were on their last legs, which was barely a trickle.

I'll be willing to bet that the comatose, stuck in the 80's-looking JCPenney on the other end of the mall will outlast Dillards.

[D-Dey65]

I still can't get anyone in Wikipedia Project US Roads to make Florida State Road 33A shields and Florida State Road 40A shields for the SR 33 and SR 40 articles, respectively. Just because those routes are dead, doesn't mean they never existed.

[Scott5114]

I don't think there's anybody at Wikipedia USRD anymore.

[kkt]

Drivers who weave through traffic, cutting in, just in order to get a car's length or two ahead.  Congratulations, you've saved maybe a couple of seconds on your trip by taking risks and pissing off a dozen people.

[1995hoo]

We made the brutally difficult decision and had it done this morning. Now I understand the origin of the euphemism "put to sleep." Afterwards, she looked like she was sleeping peacefully on the vet's table.

It's not "minor" to me, but I recognize that in the scheme of things it is. Our cat's health has declined significantly and suddenly over the past week, yet the vet and the animal hospital can't find anything in particular that's wrong with her aside from arthritis in one leg (which we've known about, and treated, for a year or two) and just plain old age (June 11 would be her 18th birthday, which for a cat is apparently the equivalent of 88 years old for a person). We adopted her in late 2021 when she was 14. Her prior owner had to go into memory-assisted living and was not allowed to have a pet for the understandable reason that memory-impaired patients forget to feed the pet, clean up after it, etc., and it imposes an unfair burden on the staff. So we adopted her and we've had three and a half great years. I always knew we'd have less time, rather than more; Ms1995hoo probably knew that too but doesn't want to admit it. As I was typing that last sentence, the cat jumped down off the couch and stumbled when she landed on the floor (which has never happened before today). She looked baffled by it. But then she changed her mind and jumped back up without any trouble (and she is sitting sort of hunched over with her face in her favorite blanket).

If I were making the decision myself, as much as it pains me to say it I would probably have her put down this week, most likely sooner rather than later, because it's clear to me she's miserable about something and is going downhill quickly. I don't want her to suffer. But my wife is resisting, which I guess I understand as well—I don't want to make that decision either, of course.

Sorry if I am rambling. Very tough evening in our house and I just need to get it off my chest.

[hbelkins]

We made the brutally difficult decision and had it done this morning. Now I understand the origin of the euphemism "put to sleep." Afterwards, she looked like she was sleeping peacefully on the vet's table.

It's not "minor" to me, but I recognize that in the scheme of things it is. Our cat's health has declined significantly and suddenly over the past week, yet the vet and the animal hospital can't find anything in particular that's wrong with her aside from arthritis in one leg (which we've known about, and treated, for a year or two) and just plain old age (June 11 would be her 18th birthday, which for a cat is apparently the equivalent of 88 years old for a person). We adopted her in late 2021 when she was 14. Her prior owner had to go into memory-assisted living and was not allowed to have a pet for the understandable reason that memory-impaired patients forget to feed the pet, clean up after it, etc., and it imposes an unfair burden on the staff. So we adopted her and we've had three and a half great years. I always knew we'd have less time, rather than more; Ms1995hoo probably knew that too but doesn't want to admit it. As I was typing that last sentence, the cat jumped down off the couch and stumbled when she landed on the floor (which has never happened before today). She looked baffled by it. But then she changed her mind and jumped back up without any trouble (and she is sitting sort of hunched over with her face in her favorite blanket).

If I were making the decision myself, as much as it pains me to say it I would probably have her put down this week, most likely sooner rather than later, because it's clear to me she's miserable about something and is going downhill quickly. I don't want her to suffer. But my wife is resisting, which I guess I understand as well—I don't want to make that decision either, of course.

Sorry if I am rambling. Very tough evening in our house and I just need to get it off my chest.

Bummer. I'm very sorry. Been down that road more times than I care to count.

[1995hoo]

Bummer. I'm very sorry. Been down that road more times than I care to count.

Thanks. In some ways, dealing with this was harder than it was when my father was dying six years ago (he died two weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer). There, we knew it was coming, but it was a question of when nature would take its course. Here, we had to make a brutally difficult decision, and it came out of nowhere. Ten days ago, there was no inkling at all this was going to happen, but over the course of the weekend it became inevitable and by last night it was very obvious.

I mentioned above about the expression "put to sleep." The vet got a kick out of it when I said that the time I had surgery when I was 7 years old, they used a gas mask and told me they were going to "put me to sleep." Now, we didn't have a pet then, but I knew what "put to sleep" meant in the context of dogs because of school friends who had it happen, and I freaked out big time until they explained that they didn't mean it that way.

[kkt]

My sympathies, 1995hoo.  It's the right thing even though it's painful for you.

[SectorZ]

@1995hoo my sincerest sympathies. I have a cat that has made it to 19 thus far but has problems that will likely get worse and push my wife and I to make that difficult decision. It's never easy but it's the humane choice.

[ZLoth]

We made the brutally difficult decision and had it done this morning. Now I understand the origin of the euphemism "put to sleep." Afterwards, she looked like she was sleeping peacefully on the vet's table.

My condolences on the loss of a well-loved family member.

[D-Dey65]

I don't think there's anybody at Wikipedia USRD anymore.

Well, that sucks. Now these problems will never be solved.

And I just found out that WikiProject Buses is only semi-active, so nobody will be around to expand the gallery on Big Taxi Tour buses, or a certain old Mack bus owned by New York City Transit made back in the 1950's.

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't think there's anybody at Wikipedia USRD anymore.

Well, that sucks. Now these problems will never be solved.

And I just found out that WikiProject Buses is only semi-active, so nobody will be around to expand the gallery on Big Taxi Tour buses, or a certain old Mack bus owned by New York City Transit made back in the 1950's.

Most of the Road Fans who were big on Wikipedia bailed for the AAroads Wiki. There was a whole thing about several editors at Wikipedia having a general problem regarding roads being noteworthy enough to maintain pages on.  I'm to understand there was a threatened purge of articles. 

[bugo]

231, the number of cubic inches in a gallon, is also a multiple of 11 and of 7 to boot as well.

The bulletproof Buick 3.8 L/3800 cc V6 engine has the capacity 231 cubic inches. This engine was based on the Buick 215 aluminum V8 introduced in 1961. The original capacity of the V6 was 3.2 L/198 cid. In the late 1970s, Chevrolet introduced its own 3.8 L V6, which was based on the infamous small block V8. Its displacement was 229 cid. Both were marketed as 3.8 L engines.

Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick all produced 350 cid/5.7 L V8s that were completely different from each other. Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile all offered 455 cid/7.4 L V8 engines that were all unique. Chevrolet offered a 454/7.4 L V8 starting in 1970. 1970 was the only year the 454 had high compression; the 427 V8 that was produced from 1966 to 1969 was more powerful than the post-1970 454 was. The 402/6.6 L V8 replaced the 396/6.5 L engine in 1970. The 396 brand had a good reputation, so in Chevelle Super Sports, the 402 was known as the 396. The 402 in big Chevrolets, trucks and Chevelle Malibus was marketed as the 400. There was also a small block 400 introduced in 1970 to replace the lopo 396. The 400 small block, known as the Turbo Fire 400, wasn't a performance engine compared to the 402/"400", which was more powerful. The big block 402 was known as the Turbo Jet 400.

Ford's popular 302 V8 displaced 4.9 L, but was famously marketed as the "5.0" V8. The reason is because the 300 inline six, which might be the most indestructible American engine ever built, displaced 4.9 L.

[bugo]

The story behind this gripe -- I recently came into a free laptop that came with Vista and has XP installed now. Since XP is kaput and Windows 10 is going kaput later this year, I want to put Windows 11 on it, but the update process is so convoluted, and I'll have to buy a license for Windows 11.

I recently bought a refurbished laptop with Windows 10 on it. I assumed I could "upgrade" to Windows 11, but this computer won't run 11. The site I bought it from didn't say anything about not running Windows 11. So when 10 bites the dust, I'm installing Debian on it.

I have an ancient iMac that runs Snow Leopard. I thought about running some sort of Linux on it. Macs aren't as user friendly as Windows and Linux computers.

[ZLoth]

Part of the reason I upgraded my i7-4790K system (build in 2013) to a i9-13900K (build at the end of 2022) was that the I7-4790K wasn't compatible with the TPM requirement that is part of the Windows 11 system requirement. I was hoping to use the i7-4790K as a media computer (with two BluRay drives), but it finally conked out a few months later. Rather than try to repair it, I ended up building a new AMD Ryzen 7 7700X computer system, and it comes in handy especially with media conversion chores, even if I had to use a smaller and older case to have two 5¼" drive bays. I also put my older nVidia 1080 card in it, although the support for that card ends probably next year.

Also, after getting mad with a used Android tablet mainly for the limited storage for apps (less than 32GB), I formatted that tablet and set it up for my mother. I just received a new Android tablet that has much more storage space, and I paid a little extra to have mobile access.

[thenetwork]

The story behind this gripe -- I recently came into a free laptop that came with Vista and has XP installed now. Since XP is kaput and Windows 10 is going kaput later this year, I want to put Windows 11 on it, but the update process is so convoluted, and I'll have to buy a license for Windows 11.

Macs aren't as user friendly as Windows and Linux computers.

I disagree on that ^^ Mac statement...to a point.

The days when I had a PC/Windows desktop at work and a Mac desktop at home, I seemed to have more problems with the former with freeze-ups, premature app closings and longer start-up times.

More recently, when I had an iPhone for work and Android for a personal smart phone for home, the Android has the edge as the Mac/iPhone keyboard does not have a row of numbers paired with the alpha keys on the main screen -- you had to toggle between the alpha screen and the numbers/symbols screen.  That made it far worse when I had to key in alpha-numeric data. The toggling/shifting was a pain in the Arse.

In my current job, my work and personal phones are both Androids.

[Scott5114]

I'm to understand there was a threatened purge of articles.

It's moved on from "threatened"—a couple of British road articles were deleted last month. Normally when something like this happens, it is used as precedent to delete more and more.

[Scott5114]

The days when I had a PC/Windows desktop at work and a Mac desktop at home, I seemed to have more problems with the former with freeze-ups, premature app closings and longer start-up times.

Stability, performance, and user-friendliness (which most people say to mean "user-interface design") are all orthogonal to each other.

Macs and Linux systems are more stable than Windows because they're Unix-based, and Unix's architecture is better-designed than Windows' is (this is because Unix is built around the POSIX standards documents, whereas Windows is a heap of code that has been added to in an ad-hoc manner based on the whims of the marketing department for the last 25 years).

Performance is limited only by how much money you want to spend on hardware. My Linux computer performs really well because I happened to build it when there was a BOGO sale for RAM on Amazon, so I put an obnoxious amount of it in my computer. Performance also depends a lot on what you're doing with it. A computer may handle online banking and Facebook really well and be complete dogshit at rendering 3D video.

UI design is really hit or miss on all three platforms. On both Windows and Linux, every developer is more or less free to design their program however they wish, so the quality of the UI will vary based on the quality of the developer. On Linux, you also have the problems that most of the really good developers prefer command-line interfaces, and there is no central facility for creating standard widgets like file selectors and buttons (Windows provides this as part of the API), so these work differently depending on what widget toolkit the developer chose (in my experience the Qt file selector is nice and the GTK one is a horror show, but your preference may vary). On Mac, there is a rigid set of design rules that functions more or less like a MUTCD for UI design, but these design rules are so rigid that if you're trying to do something the developer didn't contemplate, or the task doesn't fit inside the design rules neatly, you may be SOL and end up having to work around the UI on the command line anyway.

One UI quirk that Linux gets right and the other two seem to be increasingly failing at is producing useful error messages. It is scary and cryptic when a program crashes and barfs out a traceback at you, but you can at least paste it into Google and see if there's a workaround or a fix coming. The trend on the other platforms is to just say something unhelpful like "Oopsy, the computer did a poopsy" and leave you guessing as to what just happened or whether it's fixable.