Cup of Coffee

December 23, 2020: The Airing Of Grievances

70 Comments

I'll set up a sign up for the Feats of Strength in one second.

Best day for a Zoom call (vote up to 3)

  • Dec 28 (33%, 4 Votes)
  • Dec 29 (33%, 4 Votes)
  • Dec 30 (33%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 4

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70 thoughts on “December 23, 2020: The Airing Of Grievances”

  3. Of all the shitty things about this shitty year that could be air'd, I'd like to take a moment to say thanks to all youse for being a bright spot yet again.

    Now to the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

    3. I will say that I enjoyed the Zoom calls this summer. It was a pleasure to meet many of you via zoom for the first time, including you, meat! Plus, I am thankful for my interactions with brianS. He's like the big, way, way older brother that I never had.

            1. Okay hj, how about posting a poll sometime for evening of 28th, 29th, or 30th*, and we can iron out a timeframe when the day is settled.

              *can a poll allow for multiple choices?

    1. We have snow to go along with the strong wind. It's not an "official" blizzard because we're not supposed to get enough snow for that, but it is one for all practical purposes. No travel advised throughout the area because you simply can't see to stay on the road.

      1. Two or three days ago, we had a 40% chance of getting up to an inch of snow. Now, we are expecting 10" of snow today. Ugh.

        1. I built a skating rink yesterday. It is not flooded yet, because it wasn't cold enough. Here's hoping the empty rink makes it through.

      3. 2 minutes ago the blizzard conditions were so bad that I couldn't see the shed 30 feet from our window. In town. This is something else.

        1. my whole town lost power a few hours ago (has since come back on) but the winds are super fierce and snowflakes huge

  5. Spoiler SelectShow

    2. 1) when at your keyboard, are your wrists lower than your elbow? if not, your wrists and shoulders are eventually going to ache
      2) look into a standup workstation!(and gel floor mat)

      1. I will second both of Rhu's suggestions.

        I developed pretty severe elbow tendinitis in my right elbow almost 3 months ago. Probably related to spending so many hours with my butt glued to my home office chair and having my keyboard at not quite the right height.

        1. I lowered the little feet on my keyboard to get it flatter. It's a Logitech wireless from Costco, with a somewhat "ergo" sculpting to the wristrest part, but a straight keyboard, unlike the MS Elite (contoured and with a slight curvature to the keyboard part so that the wrists are at a more natural angle on the keys) I have at my actual office. I have a wireless, ergo keyboard on order.

        2. I moved my wireless mouse to my left side. I'm left-handed anyway, so it's not a problem for me to use it with that hand. Doing so takes additional stress off my right elbow, shoulder (the surgically "repaired" one) and wrist/hand.

        3. I have an adjustable desk (powered) that I got at Costco last year. It's great to be able to work standing up. I also lowered the bottom setting a bit more so that my forearms are angled down slightly.

        2. I ended up with a pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder last spring when I moved to work-from-home from looking at a laptop screen. I now have a stand for the laptop and a wireless keyboard so I can have the monitor at eye level.

  6. After Grandpa passed away, the aunts and uncles are working through some of his and Grandma's possessions.
    Grandma passed in '08. They sent this list of items of hers that they're not quite sure what to do with. I thought this crowd could appreciate.
    I never talked baseball with Grandma, but it seems it was important to her. That, and "proud Minnesotan," maybe. I'm ruminating here a bit on the hidden lives and interests of people that I don't do a great job of getting to know.

    Listing of Mom’s Saved Stuff
    Booklet - Baseball Stars - American League - Photo Album 1969
    1987 Twins Related:
    HOMER HANKIES - 5
    World Series Champs Poster (Midwest Federal) large x2
    Great Moments in World Series History Banner (approx 11” x 53”
    ‘Magic’ Twins Enchanted Season 96 page booklet & bumper sticker
    10/26/87 - StarTribune A&D Sections
    10/27/87 - StarTribune B&D Sections
    10/28/87 - StarTribune A&D Sections
    10/29/87 - StarTribune Souvenir Section World Champs
    11/9/87 - ‘Enterprise’ full page of Team Photos
    Wheaties Boxes/Twins x2
    1991 Twins Related:
    HOMER HANKIES - 3
    HOMEMADE Homer Hankie made by ???
    10/28/91 - StarTribune A&C Sections
    10/30/91 - StarTribune A&C Sections
    10/31/91 - StarTribune Souvenir Section World Champs x2
    1992 Twins Magazine - ‘Family Photo Album’...family photos of some team members
    8/9/92 - StarTribune Mall of America Opening Ad/Section
    12/10/96 - Startribune Mpls Edition A Section (why??)
    9/23/97 - STAR Magazine Special Memorial Edition re: Princess Diana death
    2002 HOMER HANKIES - 2
    1/23/04 - StarTribune front page of Ice Palace (St Paul Winter Carnival)
    3/12/06 - StarTribune full page Kirby Puckett x2
    3/12/06 - StarTribune full page Kirby Puckett stats

    1. I'm ruminating here a bit on the hidden lives and interests of people that I don't do a great job of getting to know.

      One of the things about doing funerals is that you learn all kinds of interesting facets of people that so many people never knew about. There is so much more to almost all of us than most people ever know.

      1. In the last six months, I learned that when my dad was in high school, he lived in a house that is about three blocks from where he lives now. When my grandfather bought it, the previous owner had not finished the upstairs and he lived in the basement. When I was a kid I delivered papers to that house and I never, ever knew that (a) my dad had lived there and (b) my grandfather had bought it unfinished. I also learned that my grandfather's barbershop was build by the men who were building the school building in SBGville. He hired them to work at night after they were done with their shift at the school.

        This is not just some person that I learned this about. This was my dad, so yes, we know so little about the people around us.

      3. Padre:

        I was really impressed by the list of teams for which you have been an announcer over the years (and belated Happy Birthday!).

        I bet you have some good stories/anecdotes to share from all of these games. I for one would love to hear some of them.

        1. It comes from moving around a few times and letting it be known that you're willing to help. P. A. announcing isn't really all that hard, but you do have to pay attention for the whole game, and a lot of people just don't want to do that.

          1. As far as stories, I don't know that I have a lot of them. I did once announce a 16u baseball game in which Chad Greenway played for the other team. He grew up in Mount Vernon, which is about forty miles from Wessington Springs, where I was living at the time. He was, as you might guess, a first baseman. I don't particularly remember anything he did, but you noticed him just because he was bigger than everyone else.

  7. My list of grievances would surprisingly be quite a bit shorter than my list of things that have lifted me up in 2020. I will not list them all out because I don't have the time right now, but I will say this: If you focus solely on what you see on TV or read on social media, it is easy to lose faith in humanity. But if you look around and search for the good, you can find it. My community has lifted me up in so many ways over the past 10 months. The amount of giving in my community to those in need is impressive to say the least. I have cried countless times at the gestures people are making around here to take care of each other. Yeah, we have our share of idiots, but I just tune them out. In my opinion, the media companies all over America are more interested in keeping the negative dialogue rolling in order to get higher ratings, more clicks or more views. Common sense does not sell, and that is a shame. There is really no source I have found that gives you the entire story. It is all slanted to hurt one side or the other. So, I have chosen to use my own brain and my own eyes to evaluate what the truth really is.

    Y'all on this site have lifted me up countless times and reading your comments and posts are often the one shining example to me, on a daily basis, that the internet has some good left in it. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

  8. Grievances. So duh, of course we can all go on with 2020, COVID, stuck, at home, Trump, QAnon, mask deniers, elections... We all get it, I'm not going to beat that horse but all worthy grievances.

    Here are my other grievances:

    Streaming TV Services - From YouTube TV, HULU, Sling, etc., raising prices to dropping Regional Sports, C'mon man!

    Mortgage Companies/Title Companies/Credit Bureaus, etc. It's outrageous the fees that charge and add on to buying and selling a house, it's practically a license to steal. Also, with the proceeds of my house sale, I paid off a Parent Plus Loan and a kid's student loan that I was a second signature on, and my Credit Score went down! WTF?

    People who don't turn left when there is a green left arrow -- 'nuf said.

    Cancer Sucks!

    1. My Dad had his second chemotherapy treatment on Monday. His hair started falling out, so he's pre-emptively shaved his head (luckily, he has a brand new NDSU stocking cap to keep his noggin warm) and he was pretty sick for a couple of days after the first treatment. But, good news, his PSA numbers have fallen dramatically, so it appears that the treatments are helping, at least for now. He was first diagnosed with prostate cancer I think about 4 years ago and he's been able to avoid chemo until now.

      1. My last house purchase was through a title attorney and the seller. I regret not being able to put the seller’s feet to the fire a bit, but then again he is my boss. We saved a bucket load of money, but I did have to twist the a-hole’s arm to replace some really shoddy work. Saved a bunch of money, though.

    3. Yep, paid of my house and my credit score took a dip as well. I don't get it. I just proved my creditworthiness by paying off my biggest loan, and suddenly that makes me MORE of a credit risk?

    4. I'll pile on the credit bureaus. Why do they take the word of a scummy collection agency over individuals? It's a criminal racket.

  9. Grievance:

    My Powerline wifi extender is being balky. It can work flawlessly for days, and then decide that it doesn't like the line, so that I lose both the wired "Ethernet" connection and the unwired "wireless" connection when my laptop is plugged into my port replicator. But I still have wifi in the room, as witnessed by my phone and by unplugging the laptop from the port replicator. WTF? (this model of extender has both a wired connection and dualband wifi antenna for 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands, a TP-Link TL WPA7510).

    so, is this telling me that there is some sort of electrical interference intermittently effing up the powerline signal, that my house's wiring suh-hucks, or both? Is sean gonna tell me again I should get a mesh setup, and if so, what is he going to recommend?

    I will also note that our upstairs TV often has trouble connecting to Netflix and other services, even though the TV signal itself is usually just fine (occasional spats of hiccups). We have AT&T Uverse75 or 100, I forget, with the cable and the internet components.

    useful, actionable thoughts?

      1. They're rated for a lot more insertions than USB Types A/B (10,000 versus 1,000) though early failures do happen. The usual problem I have is lint: a small amount slowly collects in my phone's port and I have to clean it out twice a year. Suddenly the plug makes that satisfying click. My new laptop now uses USB PD so I'll find out how that holds up over the years.

          1. I bought a wireless charger before I got my most recent phone. It worked well, albeit more slowly than a wired charger. But with the new phone, I got a folding leather(ish) case (Ocase). The charger doesn't work through the case and it is a major hassle to remove the phone from the case just to charge. So, back to the plug I went.

  10. Here's another Festivus complaint, a little closer to home.

    A local bank was giving out a $5000 prize to a charity and they had a contest to pick the winner. Set aside whether that's a good idea, I think it's not. Anyway, you could nominate a charity and vote. Someone nominated the skating team that my daughter belongs to. I'm generally in favor of this team existing, but let's get real. This is a group of privileged girls who have parents that can finance their sport. It is not a charity within what I would consider a reasonable definition, even if it is set up that way for tax purposes. In fact, they are associated with the school district, so they aren't much different than the high school football team.

    Anyway, certain parents were voting every day and some of them were voting with several email accounts. The contest was neck and neck with.... the local food bank. We (my wife and I) did not participate in this activity, but in retrospect, I wish I would have mustered every email account i have to vote for the food bank.

    On the last day of the contest, my wife received an email thanking her for voting. She had not voted. She texted one of the primary perpetrators of this scheme, a woman whose husband is a practicing physician (i.e., they have p-l-e-n-t-y), and she admitted to "accidentally" voting using my wife's email account.

    Today the winners were announced. The skating club beat the food bank. I am so ashamed to be associated in any way with that club.

    2. Well, if it was me, I would probably ask for an audience with the skating club's board of directors and ask them to divert funds back to the food bank due to the voting being hijacked. On another note, I would only think a campaign for an athletic club like this makes sense if funds are being raised to provide scholarships for families who would normally not have the financial standing to participate. Our youth hockey club does a ton of fundraising but most of that money is put into scholarships for families who want to skate, but normally can't afford it. I agree with your disgust.

      1. I am, similarly, all for clubs raising funds to provide scholarships for families that can't afford to participate otherwise. And similarly disgusted by the absolute gall of parents hijacking the bank's charitable cause when there is so much real need in our communities.

      2. And I'd feel free to let the bank know that an e-mail account was hijacked for voting purposes. And, frankly, think about calling law enforcement.

        1. You could also report it to the AGO because the office has regulatory authority over charities

          1. Won't be long before this thread goes all Milton (Office Space). "I am going to burn this building to the ground"

  11. The wind is blowing with gusto from the west, right down our street and into the cul de sac where it's swirling around and making a big snow tornado. I'm drinking hot mint tea and listening to classic Christmas tunes. The dog is sleeping on the couch next to me after half an hour of snow Frisbee, the cat is curled up on the loveseat. The snow blower is gassed up, tested and ready to go. I'm healthy, safe and warm today and expect to be again tomorrow. I've heard enough grievances aired over the last four years to last a lifetime, so I'm skipping that part of Festivus this year. And I strained my groin a bit stowing the bicycles today so no feats of strength. Also, my Festivus pole is galvanized steel, not aluminum. But other than that, it's go time.

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