Looks like it’s time for an open thread.
Here’s a turtle I saw at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge last week. His right hind foot looks strange, but when he jumped in the water, he seemed to be fine. Perhaps he was doing yoga.
This post is in: Open Threads
Looks like it’s time for an open thread.
Here’s a turtle I saw at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge last week. His right hind foot looks strange, but when he jumped in the water, he seemed to be fine. Perhaps he was doing yoga.
Comments are closed.
mai naem mobile
TurtleBoy was stretching before doing strenuous exercise.
WereBear
That is well within turtle parameters.
Mike in NC
We had a box turtle about the size of a soup bowl walk into our open garage a couple of days ago. He quickly disappeared under my workbench, so I ended up lying on my belly with a flashlight and yardstick trying to find him. Located the critter and put him under a palm tree by the pond behind the house.
mai naem mobile
So I have a question – what happens to cars that sink in a flood. Do the owners find them? Do the municipalities just tow them and inform the owners through their registration info? Does the insurance company just accept the owners explanation of the car disappearing? Just wondering.
Aleta
@mai naem mobile: Loosening up before the racing dive off the block. (Turtles have active imaginations.)
efgoldman
@WereBear:
Showing his ass to the senate and the rest of the country.
NCSteve
Not a lot of other surface area with direct access to the sun for turtle trying to get his exothermic self warmed up and mobile in a hurry.
efgoldman
@mai naem mobile:
They’re SUPPOSED to be retitled as junk/salvage, but inevitably thousands of them will be cleaned up, illegally retitled, and shipped thousands of miles away to used car wholesalers.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: isn’t WV a title laundering haven?
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
What late-90s/early-2000s Pen & Pixel cover is Trump?
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
I dunno’. Every once in a while, some blue state AG’s office goes after a dealer for re-selling supposedly totalled cars.
justawriter
Turtle is just letting the nail polish dry
Major Major Major Major
Y’know, turtles are pretty cool.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Major Major Major Major: All turtles?
HumboldtBlue
I see you motherfuckers are still here.
The fires have turned the air quality 8 blocks from the ocean poor to unhealthy. Some 400,000 acres have burned in a radius of 130 miles and the heat index is fucking Hades-like.
It was 86 degrees on the coast today.
That just doesn’t happen.
It just doesn’t fucking happen.
Some 200,000 people have been impacted and air quality 45 miles east is hazardous.
Not unhealthy, not poor.
Hazardous.
Happy fucking September.
Major Major Major Major
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): #notallturtles
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in NC:
Oh, how I love prepositional phrases.
ra2phoenix
I owned a red-eared slider like the one in the photo for a while and he would do that all the time, especially in the sun lamp. Sometimes both legs at once. Turtle was a real asshole, though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HumboldtBlue: And a fine hello to you too, sunshine.
rikyrah
Turtles rock.
One of my favorite turtle stories was one of a suburban family who was thankful for someone finding their missing turtle. It wound up in a swimming pool a few miles away from home. The Turtle was huge. My thing was…how could they lose the turtle. He couldn’t just slink away unnoticed…damn thing was HUGE.
Mike J
Does this turtle own a diabetic donkey?
dmsilev
There are a bunch of turtles in a pond on the campus I work at; legs stretching out like that is a pretty common pose when they’re sitting in the sun.
They move faster than you might think when properly motivated. Food is a good motivator. Have you ever been caught in a turtle stampede? I have.
dexwood
A raised hind leg is turtle for eat my dust.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: Sounds painful, did you seek compensation for your injuries?
seaboogie
@HumboldtBlue: Hear you. It was 110 degrees in Sonoma today, and your haze has drifted down thisaway. At least we’re not in Houston!
seaboogie
@ra2phoenix: Turtle’s name wasn’t Mitch, was it? Asking for a friend.
grammypat
Were you visiting Bosque del Apache for the sandhill’s fall flyway?
randy khan
Since it’s an open thread and I’m too late for the Houston do-over thread, I’ve been pondering how things like Charlottesville (saying “Nazis are bad”) and Houston (meeting with victims and promising them help is coming) would have been absolute no-brainers for literally every other President, but Trump can’t get them right on the first try. (He doesn’t even really get them right on the second try, but at least comes close enough that we can squint at what he did and say it was at least sort of okay.) These hurdles that really any national leader should barely notice are really tough for him.
Now this doesn’t come as a surprise in any way, but it’s still shocking. And what it makes me think is that it’s going to be really bad when something happens that won’t allow him a do-over.
randy khan
Nuts. The NY Times is reporting a tremor near North Korea’s usual nuclear test site. No confirmation it was another test yet, but with the earlier announcement, well, it sure seems reasonably likely.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@randy khan: Cheryl mentioned it below, looks like it’s measuring between five and six, which people say is consistent with a nuke test
Timurid
M 6.3 according to USGS.
Ruckus
Asking questions from the hive.
How many have an Amazon Prime account and are you satisfied with it?
How many people have issues with Amazon purchases and service, including delivery?
You may gather from this that I’m not all that satisfied with the company or what I’m getting for my money.
How many have noticed any changes at Whole Paycheck since Amazon took over completely?
Mike J
@Timurid: “M 6.3 Explosion – 24km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea”
USGS uses the word “explosion”. Someone send up the Rofer signal.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
We piggyback on our daughter’s prime account
I’ve hardly ever had an issue with an Amazon purchase, service, or delivery
I’ve never shopped at Whole Paycheck and probably never will. I do buy non-perishable grocery items from Amazon.
Mike in NC
@randy khan: Count on seeing more “interesting times” in September (according to that ancient Chinese curse): DACA killed, federal budget DOA, debt ceiling fiasco, government shutdown, and so much more. Basically a daily scandal involving the Trump Crime Cartel. Not even going to touch empty threats to bomb North Korea.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike J: she has retired for the evening. This is one of the guys she retweeted reacting to the 6.3 report
I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
Pretty happy with it.
If they use ONTRAK, they almost always deliver it to my neighbor in the front house. I’ve had one delivery lost and Amazon ate the cost and I ended up just re-ordering it.
Felonius Monk
@ra2phoenix:
How was such Assholishness ascertained? Was it wearing a red MAGA hat? Was it sporting a Trump/Pence bumper sticker? Did it try to deport the non-native turtles from the pond?
Ruckus
@randy khan:
I’m not allowing him a do over for Houston. He shouldn’t have to be handled to not make a complete ass of himself. Especially since he hates being handled.
And no I don’t anticipate him doing any better, ever. He is an extremely immature, extremely narcissistic ass, and with the very real possibility that he’s in early stage dementia, who also has seemingly the intelligence of a not very bright young child. You are right Houston should have been a total no brainer, but he couldn’t pull it off without 2 tries and even then he only squeaked through by the narrowest of margins, by being the least amount of ass that is possible.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: My husband and I share a prime account. It’s fine, we get our money’s worth out of the shipping, and I like the streaming options a lot (we also don’t have cable or anything so that’s a big value add for us).
I do shop at whole foods, and tbh haven’t noticed any normal person grocery staples that cost any more than the food across the street at Safeway. And haven’t noticed any price changes, but have also only been there once, for carrots. The carrots cost the same.
frosty
@Ruckus: My wife has a Prime acct which I’ve used. We haven’t had any problems.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hiroshima was 10-15 kilotons. A megaton is about the size of a US B83.
Put your city in here with 1000 kilotons.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Oh man, that’s a really cool web app.
J R in WV
I stated ordering parts from Amazon to repair stuff. I did a dishwasher repair, then parts to rehab some Andersen sliding glass doors. Also some used books. All came when promised, worked OK so far.
Also set of filters and glasses for the eclipse, one for camera lens, two for a pair of binoculors. All those worked well. I hesitated for a long time, but neighbor has had success finding parts hard to come by locally.
Then I realized that for years we have been earning points on our main credit card with Citi, since 1983, and those points turned into a credit at Amazon. Effectively, I have been ordering stuff from them for months now for free. Hard to resist that!
Nothing has showed up and been stupidly wrong part, whether from Amazon or a Amazon reseller, which most odd parts come from.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Not been my experience. Been using them for 9 yrs and I’ve had one relatively satisfying transaction. Three purchases in the last 2 weeks, they screwed up 2 of them. And that’s about par for the course for me, one in three. I also stream video and that isn’t all that either.
Sort of trying to see if it’s me or Amazon. Either is possible.
ETA So I see from the replies that it’s quite possibly just me. Fucking figures.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Make sure you turn on fallout and casualties.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I got better.
workworkwork
@Ruckus: I’ve got a Prime account and I’ve been satisfied so far.
(Disclaimer: I don’t use the music/video streaming).
That being said, I’m shifting to Jet.com more and more as they seem to be cheaper and they don’t charge for membership. (Orders $35 and over get free shipping automatically)
Kay Eye
@Ruckus: I’m fine with Amazon Prime, though I never buy books from Amazon. I support my local independent fabulous bookstore for that. We watch the movies and tv shows that are free with Prime. I order lots of supplies for my husband’s needs as he recovers from a broken bone and doesn’t recover from other problems.
The bananas at my Whole Foods have dropped 10 cents a pound. I buy meat there if I don’t have a chance to get it at my farmers’ market.
seaboogie
@Ruckus: Don’t have Amazon Prime and won’t. No benefits USPS employees are Amazon’s to-your-door delivery system – why you see postal trucks on Sundays. Just don’t want to participate in a race to the bottom. Always go to original sites rather than Amazon. Subscribe to WAPO online though – picking my Bezos battles…
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Ruckus: I’ve had Amazon Prime for years with no issues at all. I think I’ve needed their customer service twice, and both times I was happy with them.
Never shopped at Whole Foods.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Of course.
ETA: Never leave home without ’em.
Ruckus
Maybe my expectations are too high. I’ve gotten Prime a number of years for free because of enough purchases, so either I don’t buy enough anymore or that’s stopped, I noticed that Prime is now $99/yr and it just doesn’t seem worth it. But then I also stopped paying for a Cosco membership, the cheapest is $55 and I only saved about $50/yr and shopping there is a pain in the butt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike J: I think I’ll go hide under the covers instead
efgoldman
@Ruckus: Do you live in the boonies? Any issues i may have had with Amazon purchases have been with the carrier (UPS, FedEx, USPS) rather than Amazon itself.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
To add more info about Amazon.
None of my interactions with Amazon involve a Prime Account. I disrespect their business plan to undercut everyone until they establish a monopoly, and so won’t do that much business nor establish a business relationship like a Prime account.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Very satisfied. I’ve rarely had a problem. I get deliveries both at work and at home.
Ah, yes, once I had a problem with an attempted delivery at my work place, which is closed most weekends. I think I had to send a few emails to get a redelivery. This was also when Amazon started using the postal service for some deliveries.
Once I got something that was not what I wanted, maybe a size problem, can’t quite remember. I sent an email for a return mailer, and instead Amazon gave me a credit and said that I could just keep whatever the thing was.
A couple of times I’ve received one day delivery instead of two day.
I’ve also ordered items and had them shipped to the address of friends and family.
In short, Amazon has been working well for me.
Let’s see. Don’t shop at Whole Foods and see no reason to change my habits.
Also enjoy Amazon’s streaming services.
I also have an Audible account, but keep that separate from my Amazon account.
Victor Matheson
If that really is a megaton explosion, it is fifty times bigger than any bomb N. Korea has ever detonated previously. I think it would also mean they have progressed from a fission bomb to a full hydrogen bomb.
I suspect that we are not really talking about a megaton explosion, but I am no expert.
Neither N. korea’s 25 kiloton weapons nor this new 1 megaton weapon are available for 2-day delivery under Amazon Prime.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: One time my cat food was a day late. It was a cat-astrophe in Samwise’s eyes.
frosty
@seaboogie:
Yeah, this sucks. One reason I send everything I ship from eBay by USPS and not UPS.
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
Here in the workers paradise of southern CA most of my Amazon deliveries use Amazon Logistics. Of course they have no commonality other than where the money ends up so if you complain to Amazon about delivery, they blame Logistics. Nice trick that, always blame someone else.
I live in a security apt building so the delivery person can’t just walk up to your door. Once, was expecting a package, walked outside, saw an Amazon driver, he didn’t have my package, but the site said it had been delivered. Turned out they delivered it about 4 miles away, on a street with an unmistakably different name, to a house, not an apartment building, to someone with an also unmistakable different name, who was nice enough to bring it to me. They called me back as said they didn’t know what had happened to it. Their tracking is suspect.
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Basically means that they have a fusion device. You don’t get a MT with fission alone.
Major Major Major Major
OT: Just checked my comic’s analytics. Today a bunch of Australians read it. Weird!
seaboogie
@frosty: @frosty:@Ruckus: Feels like everyone on the bottom tier is being moved to the gig economy. I am in it and it works for me in some ways, but I don’t support it as a model. I also have a stable base. Would hate to be scrambling on every front.
seaboogie
@Ruckus: I shipped an order to a client at Symantec, signed for. She didn’t get it because it was delivered to Google. Guess it’s all the same when you are under pressure for delivery. Her mailroom sorted it, and she had to drive to Google to get it. USPS is too busy delivering Amazon to manage their own stuff, sometimes now.
Brachiator
RE: Amazon
I also enjoy some of the deliberate parody reviews of real products, such as Tuscan Dairy Whole Milk.
? Martin
@Gravenstone: Correct. Definitely a hydrogen bomb. There was a smaller quake shortly after suggesting that the detonation chamber collapsed.
This is a really big deal, but it doesn’t mean they can deliver one yet. Though, that’s just a matter of time now.
Doug R
@efgoldman: The track driven Ford Explorers in Jurassic Park were flood write-offs.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: And who could forget How To Avoid Large Ships?
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
You might be in for some serious trouble if your cat ever gets your Amazon login credentials.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
This won’t mean much to you but I live in Old Town Pasadena. I live in the middle of one of the largest urban areas of the country. That area is around 2500 sq miles or more of houses, apartments, condos, and businesses. Any green area is a park or someone’s lawn. The closest non urban area is north about 6 miles away but that is the same mountain range that is on fire right now, other than a few roads and some hiking trails, it’s almost impenetrable, which is why when it does catch on fire it’s very dangerous and hard to put out.
Probably the reason I have issues with Amazon is that they do too much business here and use Amazon Logistics for a lot of their shipping, so their delivery people are mostly overwhelmed. And underpaid. I’d bet being an Uber driver pays better.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: Or figures out how to order things with our Alexa.
Ruckus
@Victor Matheson:
Nice tie in on an open thread.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I have some Amazon deliveries made fairly near where you are, with few problems.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Hmmm. I can imagine cats practicing to say Alexa.
I also wonder whether anyone with a parrot has ever had any problems with Alexa.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I’d think the San Gabriels are a bit closer than the Verdugos** for you; and they have bears* in the San Gabriels.
* Godless, killing machines.
** The mountains currently on fire.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: his favorite part is having a box that sort of smells like cat food.
ETA: @Brachiator: well there’s an idea for my comic.
jl
@Ruckus:
” Neither N. korea’s 25 kiloton weapons nor this new 1 megaton weapon are available for 2-day delivery under Amazon Prime. ”
Aw, shit. I thought maybe that was one of those unclaimed Amazon Prime bennies that they have been bugging me about.
I was going to get a couple, for some pesky and boorish neighbors who I’m fed up with.
Edit: I have almost no problems with Amazon, but I will only use them for technical books, and always have them delivered to my work address. Which Amazon messes up from time to time and then lies about, but my company eventually gets them routes them my way, which sometimes takes a couple of weeks. Weird that Amazon basically lies and won’t bother with listening to any suggestions for how to deliver things correctly, but they;ll gladly and reliably send a free replacement right out asap. I guess some cost-benefit calculation. We have those temp Amazon deliveries too. No problem with others, USPS or UPS.
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: ?
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I’ve been trying all night to have it be Amazon. You didn’t have to lay it all on me did you? I mean I said it could easily be me and said that due to my luck of the last 25 yrs, my life being a country and western song and all that, but no, you had to pile on. Oh well, I’ll get over it. Sooner or later.?
FlyingToaster
@Ruckus:
Risky…
Had it for years. It’s great for “fulfilled by Amazon” stuff; useless for Amazon Marketplace stuff.
One lost package about 6 XMases ago; they ate the cost and re-shipped.
Very very good tracking if you live in a large Metro area; according to family memberss that don’t, it’s not great.
Mostly I buy stuff at Amazon that I can’t readily find locally — esoteric books, old CDs, weird-ass cables, shoes in my size that the local store no longer stocks, etc.
I’m assuming you don’t live near a big city with a big airport, then. Or you just don’t like when they upped the Prime cost to $99. Since about 3 months of purchases would run up that much in shipping, it’s worth it to me.
I couldn’t tell the difference. But what we buy at WF is my daughter’s haircare products, Annie’s bunny crackers, and birthday cakes. Those prices didn’t change.
HTH
? Martin
@Ruckus:
We have Prime and like it a lot. We’ve had a few delivery issues, but they were pretty minor overall.
My expectation with Whole Foods is that the only thing that is likely to change is a reduction in prices. They acquired the business to buy the customer base. It’s almost impossible to acquire a customer base in groceries in urban areas, so best to buy it, and Whole Foods has among the most loyal customer bases you’ll find. They aren’t about to fuck with that.
The whole point of the acquisition is to use the stores as local distribution points for their Amazon Now service, which I expect will fully replace Fresh. That should be a large enough demand to allow them to be cost-effective on 2 hour delivery for food and other goods similar to what you’d find in a grocery store. And they have the benefit of customers willing to come to their distribution point directly. Looks like they’re launching a Blue Apron like service out of these locations as well.
I think it’ll be an overall positive. Amazon’s game here is pretty straightforward – to get scaling and efficiency to such a level that it’s cheaper for them to deliver to your door than for you to get in the car and shop yourself. If that means a bunch of high-efficiency, presumably electric delivery vehicles instead of a zillion cars on our roads, I’m all for it. 50% of the capital cost of retail establishments is the parking lots. That has a substantial effect on the cost of goods. Fully 25% of our urban space is paved over for the exclusive benefit of cars. Converting that to pedestrian and green space can only help things, and that is only going to happen through agents like Amazon.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@FlyingToaster:
I’m pretty sure Los Angeles has an airport.
? Martin
@Ruckus:
Probably that’s it. It usually takes Amazon (like everyone else) a bit to sort out anything new, and the Logistics is going to take them a bit of time to sort out. I agree they probably have too much business there. I can also promise you that the Logistics business is merely a placeholder for an automated service – for good or bad.
Suzanne
I have Amazon Prime and love it. We do the Subscribe and Save program for items like soap and toothpaste and shampoo and tampons. We get a box once a month. We have two Whole Foods nearby and we only go on rare occasion for prepared foods like sandwiches and sushi.
We are watching “Get Out” and it is creepy AF.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe stuff comes to Pasadena from Bakersfield.
Things OK your way? Your home still safe and are you there?
Dawn Nickerson
I ordered from Amazon and got a piece of shit USMC tie from China that was screen printed wrong so the U and the Corps was omitted. It was obvious what had happened and Amazon did nothing about it.
In other news my old boss in the US is trying to contact me through facebook because he is having problems with some stuff. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. HA HA. Not my problem anymore. (doesn’t that feel good to type)
seaboogie
WRT North Korea – if they have a nuclear weapon, I hope it hits me in my forehead. Apologies to my neighbors – and being if the SF Bay Area unlikely – but I am so over this admin that such a catastrophic passing would be rather welcome. Full on “kablooie!!!” would be better than this incessant assitude of incompetent fuckery.
Over it, and channeling my inner Betty C.
jl
I do non like Amazon and try to avoid it. Kind of like Lyft. I do not loathe it try to avoid it at all costs, as I do Uber.
For technical books, sometimes Amazon is only place I can find it, and if I need a book quick I’ll do it with Prime.
I’ve never had a mis delivery when dealing directly with their higher rated sellers.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The range is about 5-6 miles away from me as that crow flies. Or as the flies crow. Whichever. It’s the same range, the names of the canyons are of course different but they lead to the same range.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I’m pretty far from the Verdugos, probably about 3 miles and maybe 4 miles from where the fire is burning. Griffith Park is much closer, but here’s a river and a freeway between the cave and the park. I’m bummed because I’ve hiked up in the area that’s burning and it had just started to recover from a fire about 12 years ago. It’s really sad.
rikyrah
@Ruckus:
I love Amazon prime. I live in an urban setting. I am annoyed that I have to call the about the packages. They stopped automatically calling me about delivery. I wish that they hadn’t.
? Martin
@jl: Amazon has 5 fulfillment centers in SoCal: Moreno Valley, Redlands, Rialto, and 2 in San Bernardino.
Ruckus
@jl:
I try to deal with Amazon direct, not a reseller unless I have no other choice or source.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: The Verdugos and the San Gabriels are different mountain ranges, they are separated by the Crescenta Valley.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: OK glad to hear it. Yes, there are, or were, very nice places to hike there.
But it does get very dry in those areas. You go out in late summer and autumn, and you can tell. There are a few native plants that pop and shoot their seed pods when it gets bone dry, and I have been there when things get popping. You can hear the little pops and see the pods shooting up and falling.
FlyingToaster
@Ruckus: Aha! Pasadena. Which may mean you’ve got a periodic “everybody quit and we hired new” just like we get every September in Boston.
Seriously, here near Bwahstin, you’re usually in great shape with those maniac drivers from AmazonFulfillment, except right now during Allston Christmas. Since WarriorGirl has a birthday coming up, I’m familiar with the problem; fortunately she’s reaching the age where an electronic device* and gift cards will more than satisfy her.
*iPod, I believe. Or an iPad-controlled BB8. Suitable for 10-year-olds.
danielx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Strictly amateur knowledge, but one megaton or more would seem to indicate a thermonuclear (ie hydrogen) weapon. Which is not good, no indeed.
seaboogie
@? Martin: it’s not vehicles doing the delivering, but people. So no-benefit recent USPS hires gigging it? And oh, Amazon packages take priority over USPS ones if they cannot deliver all during their shift.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Forgot to say that I checked on a national wild fire map, and you seemed very close. Less than an inch, even after I zoomed in. OMG!!! Danger BillinGelndale, Danger!
LaNonna
We have Amazon.it and it works very well, but the tracking isn’t great (southern Italy with poor at best postal service). Everything delivered to a friend’s storefront as we live in the countryside with no street addresses. Also have used amazon.co.uk for some English language books/dvds that the italian site doesn’t carry. No prime though, we don’t order enough for it to pay for itself.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I haven’t seen a lot of news, just what Menms posted and I haven’t seen if any more that one home had been destroyed. You guys live a lot closer to the fire than I do but I used to live right at the north end of the 210, in the hills and we once had a fire that came down to the houses back fences across the street, which were the closest to Angeles National Forest, which was between 1/8-1/4 mile away. But it was right after the big Oakland fire and LAFD brought out everything they had. I had large embers landing on my roof but the fire fighters said that with our construction and concrete tile roof we really weren’t in any danger. Really isn’t all that convincing when it’s your home that is in danger.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Are you sure?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: It did burn close to inhabited parts of Glendale(up in the Crescenta Valley they had mandatory evacuations today), but I’m down in the flat land and the closest the fire got was a bit under 5 miles away from here*.
*Shot this(Sept 2) morning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Yes, the Verdugos are listed as “nearby ranges”.
Ruckus
@FlyingToaster:
2/3 of the times I order?
Of course the pay is so good and the hours short (both not at all) that I’d imagine that if that’s all I’d found for work, I’d be spending every moment possible looking for something, anything else.
jl
@Ruckus: Verdugos are the little range due west of Pasadena.
San Gabriels are north and east of Pasadena.
Verdugos have places like Montrose Flintridge and La Crascenta (sp?) and such like between it and mtns to north.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
FIFY.
Bess
I’ve used Amazon since close to when it started up and I use it frequently. The only city (30,000) in our county offers little variety and there are lots of things that one just can’t find.
The only problems I’ve had are with deliveries. A few have been lost and Amazon has quickly shipped replacements. Now that UPS, FedEX, and OnTrac have computerized their delivery instructions for us hard to find ‘in the boonies’ people delivery is no longer a problem.
I don’t subscribe to Prime. Because of bandwidth restrictions I can’t use their entertainment stuff. I just keep a list of ‘wants but don’t need right now’ on my Wish List until I really need something or have enough to qualify for free shipping and then place my order.
I have learned to check eBay to see if there’s a cheaper ‘Buy it now’ offer with free shipping. I’d guess eBay sellers take somewhere between 10% and 20% of my business away from Amazon.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: thansk for wild fire pic, and nice mission pic too. That’s San Gabriel mission, right?
For those that have not hiked off trail in them, it is hard to describe how jumbled and rugged those mountains are, like a lot of the transverse ranges.
And not ‘rugged’ in a classic stolid wholesome wild west frontier way. But ‘junky rugged’, Weird soft rock that weathers quickly into crumbled conglomerate pebbles and little dinky rip rap. Some if it like somebody took a bulldozer into a vacant lot with a few feet of hard pan and dug up some chaotic jumbles.
Edit: you have to get up north of the transverse ranges, someplace in the Thehachape (sp?) Range, and east of the San Andreas fault to get solid classy, reliable rocks for mountains, The best, top, terrific Northern California rock. Winner rock. Not that cheap trashy Southern California stuff they use for mountains.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Yup. And you’re right about what the San Gabriels are like, this picture of San Gabriel Peak shows what you’re talking about.
FlyingToaster
@Ruckus: If it’s a particularly fucked up fulfillment center, the churn gets pretty phenomenal. The one down near Dedham Mall is lucky to keep a driver for three months — either they screw up so bad they’re released, or they get an actual sucks-less job. Sorters don’t last much longer.
You can get stuff screwed up at the sorting site (the package of mine they lost; assigned a tracking number but never actually shipped), the “deliver to shipper” site, the local Amazon distro site, the local UPS depot, the local USPS package sorters, and the potential idiot on the truck.
Sounds like you cheesed off Hermes, or something.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks, some of those pics really capture it. Sorry for the Trumpian rhetoric on the SoCal mountain rock. I was joking. There are some really beautiful places in those mountains. But a lot of nasty steep and chaotic off trail hiking too. And in some places horrible on trail hiking too, given how the rainy years can wreak havoc on trails, and whole stream and creek basins too.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I still live 5-6 miles from the SG mts, not the Verdugo mts. And the SG mts still run from the San Bernardino mts to Newhall Pass. I lived at the base of the SG mts when I lived at the north end of the 210. They are separate, the Verdugos formed from earthquake activity long ago, as did the SG. I have been properly schooled.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I usually refer to those places just as ‘such like’. So, sorry for the spelling and place name confusion. From a distance they look like urban scree washed down out from the mountains to the north. They are all on this tilted plain and look weird from a distance. Which IMHO, they look like close up too.
La Canada has its own song. though. Brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.
La Canada!
Our home and native burb,
True developer love, in all thy plats command
In long commutes we see thee tilt
Like plywood ramps in tract homes halfway built
Edit:Sorry, now I feel bad. I forgot those places are close to the fire. Hope it gets under control quickly and the places stay safe.
jl
News tidbit I will remember from tonight, news report on wild fires referring to the two hundred and ten freeway. I think it was computer generated.
Maybe some poorly paid slobs type in text in a rush for those. Anyone know?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I-210 has been closed between CA-2 and CA-118 due to the fire. The fire started near the La Tuna Canyon Road off ramp on the 210. I used to live in the La Crescenta Valley so I know the names up there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ETA: Should be the Crescenta Valley, but La Crescenta is up there.
Insane Clown POTUS
@jl:
To me, La Canada is the gateway to the glorious Angeles Crest Highway. One of the finest bits of roadway in this US of A. I feel sorry for anyone who owns a motorcycle and doesn’t live near it.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
We had dinner at the new Gus’s Fried Chicken on Glenoaks in Burbank. It was a little weird to be driving along Olive and see the fire burning the hills directly ahead of us. But it was far up in the hills and the chicken was pretty good.
frosty
@jl:
I think I read in one of John McPhee’s books that the San Andreas fault is shoving those mountains up just barely faster than they can erode. I did a hike near Baldy once and tried to walk transversely across the scree (right word?} Two steps up, slide one step back.
frosty
@Insane Clown POTUS: Well, I drove it in a Triumph TR-3 which if not a motorcycle, was pretty near to it. That’s the one with the cut down doors so you feel like your elbow is about to scrape the pavement.
Just one more canuck
@Major Major Major Major: and now some guy from Canada – I like it
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Gee, that picture’s so evocative I can almost smell the brushfires.
Oh, wait,I can smell the brushfires: 300,000 acres on fire in Oregon, and I don’t know how many acres still on fire in British Columbia and Montana. Seattle’s air has been pretty bad for more than a month.
Humboldt Blue can kiss my ass.
opiejeanne
@jl: Tehachapi is not Northern California.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne:
The kid’s headed up there next week(today’s her b-day), I hope it clears out and she can actually see The Mountain.
Booger
@Victor Matheson: LOL Can you imagining ordering a nuke and having it delivered late to your next-door neighbor by mistake?
OldDave
@Booger: (On Amazon delivering a nuke to the neighbor)
Perhaps not a good idea. From 1981 or so….
henqiguai
@Booger (#126):
Worked with an engineer who was an Air Force technician stationed somewhere up around the Artic Circle (yes, this was a <mumble> <mumble> decades back). He and a buddy were bored one day, were looking through the catalog of spare parts and ran across the information for a “bomb, nuclear…” Being young, bored, and not yet that bright, they put in a requisition for the chuckles (expected their sargent to catch it and dope-slap them; did I mention bored and not too bright?). Claims they almost shat themselves when the thing started getting all the sign-offs; what saved them was the base commander was paying attention. The call to the commander’s office came down to a display of the disallowed requisition and a very simple admonition – “Don’t”. I saw no reason to doubt his story.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Rain is forecast for next Sunday, but you know how forecasts are. She may get a good look at the mountain from the plane, depending on where she sits and the route taken. She may see the Olympics from the other side of the plane. We can usually see The Mountain from our neighborhood but the smoke has been so thick at times that it’s like Los Angeles’ smoggiest days in the 60s.
I see that we have our very own fires now in Western Washington. I’m just grateful that the San Bernardino Mountains in SoCal aren’t on fire.
No One You Know
@Ruckus: I like Prime, and haven’t noticed any problems….curious about what you’re seeing.
I don’t shop at Whole Pay, so I can’t comment: That.
Ruckus
@Dawn Nickerson:
About a week and a half into my two week notice at the last job, the CEO came up and asked me a question. He didn’t like my laugh in response and threatened to fire me. My response was please fucking do, I could use the money. He was unclear on the concept but the company policy was that if you were fired for any reason other than theft, you got a weeks pay for every full year there. That would be 10 weeks pay, I was a couple months away from 11 yrs. He declined, we are still friends. On FB. I did a two hr exit interview with my boss and the CEO. To explain why I was leaving you only have to know that my boss had no idea what the CEO and I talked about in that meeting. Not a word. Drunks can be like that.
Ruckus
@Insane Clown POTUS:
It is now a horrible motorcycle road. 2 reasons, the CHP figured out that they could make a lot of money there on weekends and there are way too many cars that think that both sides of the road are for them. I haven’t been if years and from what I understand it is only worse now.
Ruckus
@No One You Know:
Shipping issues.
Product
deliveredleft at someone else’s door miles away.Late deliveries. This is rather common. They give an end date and time when you should have it. Tracking shows the package left the the last facility, package actually arrives anywhere up to 4 days late. This time I was told by a CS supervisor that the times are estimates only. Told him to fucking estimate a lot better. I think my patience may be getting as old as I am. I understand employee churn, but also know that it is not that difficult to fix a large portion of it. Or that deliveries can be somewhat difficult due to traffic, etc. But UPS and FedEx do it. Someone up thread stated that they will get Logistics sorted out but growth can be difficult. But they haven’t sorted out their website, if I search for something, using specific names or descriptions, I may or may not get the product but even if I do the search results will be horrendous. I ask for a specific book, it doesn’t show up in the first search but does in the second, where I check spelling and cut/paste the search terms.
I click on certain delivery times because I am offered a discount on my next purchase if I do, I check and it shows that delivery when I press purchase, but is shipped different and no discount. To fix any of these issues they just refund the cost. But nothing changes, the problems/issues still exist. It’s frustrating that this man makes billions running a duffus company. But then look at our current executive branch, it’s duffus all the way up and down now, and we all suffer, especially the people at the bottom, who have the jobs and work for shit wages, shit bosses, and can’t work hard and get ahead. You have to be born into wealth today or marry into it or steal into it with crappy businesses to get ahead. Our wealth class has sullied the fine concept of whores. Not that anyone wanted to be known as a whore before but at least that was a understandable premise, no other choice, but the wealthy have turned that into something far worse, they could be wealthy and far better human beings, but they chose not to be.