• Work
  • Moved to the Secteam in Sept.
  • Back on 2nd shift (4pm-12am) in Oct.
• Car stuff
  • Bart bought a 2004 Tahoe in Aug.
  • Its been in 3 times for repairs. Over $1600 spent before 2 payments were made.
  • Tahoe now has pretty white letters on the side expressing our unhappiness. [pics forthcoming]
  • Contour is still running like a champ.
  • Bonneville had to have the upper and lower intake manifolds done AGAIN, to the tune of $1200.
  • Both Bonneville and Tahoe have aftermarket remote start/car alarms.
  • Bonneville has back windows darkly tinted.
• Other stuff
  • Still checking out apts in Grand Rapids, however moving to Marshall or staying in Lansing are now options as well
  • Apt building we are currently in had to have major sewer repairs a couple weeks ago

Edit: Bart found his atm card. They also took a set of tools and a lawn chair from his car.

Edit Feb 8th – I have full coverage on my car, so I only need to pay a $100 deductible and I get my stereo and window replaced, along with the molding/pieces of my car that got ripped out when they took the stereo & radar detector. Bart had to pay about $200 out-of-pocket to have his window replaced.

Pictures of the damage.

I got to work a little early so I could upgrade my workstation, which I thought would be a quickish thing, but nooo. Kubuntu had other ideas. The GUI install bombed out and borked my debconf. I rebooted and X &/or KDE were borked such that I had no GUI. So I ended up spending about 45 minutes “fixing” it and re-doing the upgrade, which finally completed successfully. Except for the fact I have no sound again. Grr.

Then there was workstuff. People’s sites overloading servers, yaddayadda. Busybusybusy.

Bart called me in late morning/early afternoon to let me know some asshole busted off the antenna on his car sometime last night – likely someone from our apt complex but possibly just a passing vandal.

Then I got home and retrieved the mail, which contained our electric bill from LBWL. Which is due tomorrow. I don’t know why we’re just now getting it since the “date printed” date on it says Nov 19, and I’m assuming it came from just across town or wherever LBWL gets them printed. The envelope also was not sealed at all. Not making me happy. I paid it online just now, hopefully that’s good enough.

We pretty much have three choices:

• Stay here another year
• Find an apartment in/near Lansing
• Find an apartment in/near Grand Rapids

If we move to GR, Consumers will move us, so we won’t have that expense. I kind of want to stay near Lansing though. *sigh*

Last Sunday Bart and I decided to go to the Fleetwood Diner in Lansing for ‘dinner’ after I got out of work at midnight. After having some less-than-cool experiences there the last 2 times (more on that later), we figured we were OK since it was Sunday night/Monday morning. There weren’t many people when we got there, we got a good table and were served quickly.

While waiting for our food to come up, a pair of late teens/early 20′s white males entered the diner, and one of them sat on the waiting bench next to our table, rather uncomfortably close to us. Bart and I tried to pretend the dude wasn’t there, and continued our conversation.  However, out of the corner of my eye I could tell he was staring at us, or at least at Bart, and then suddenly he spoke up – “Hey, you wanna arm wrestle?”

Bart politely but firmly declined.  This is when I turned and got my first (and only) good look at the kid’s face. He was scraggly, eyes bloodshot, and had a huge piercing through his nasal septum.  He was dirty and looked thoroughly wasted. The kid’s friend retrieved him and they sat at a table over in the smoking section next to the front door.

We got our food and started eating. More people came in. The waitresses were bustling about. Again, suddenly, dirty boy comes over and starts talking to us. The cook yells at him to get back over to the smoking section with his lit cigarette. Bart firmly tells him to go sit back down. After a minute of “What’s your problem, man?” “Go sit back at your table” he complies.

We finish our meal, and the waitress brings the bill. While we’re waiting for her to pick our money up, the kids (who have already paid I guess) get up and leave. Dirty boy has one of the diner’s cups in his hand, and the waitress starts to yell/chase after him. Just then, an object comes flying in our direction – some nasty piece of food lands *splat* on Bart’s left hand. We both look around, it seemed the object had come out of no-where just as the door was closing behind dirty boy and his friend.

The waitress chases them outside, and after a couple minutes comes back in, saying she got a license plate number and that they were going to call the cops and give it to them. Bart (after washing up) decides to wait for the police, since throwing an object at someone with the potential intent to do harm is technically felonious assault. Also, since it was pretty obvious the kid was high on *something*, if they went and picked him up it might keep something worse from happening in the future.

So we waited.. for probably over an hour. The cop finally shows up, and Bart shows him his ID and CCW permit.

“Do you have it on you?”

“Yes, its in my right pocket.”

“What is it?”

“Springfield 1911.”

Bart and the waitress recount their stories to the cop. He tells us that filing charges against the kid probably won’t do much good since the prosecutor would just throw them out.  Bart explains to the cop that if what happened at the diner gives them probable cause to investigate the kid, and they end up picking him up for something else, then that’s good enough.

Then today I needed to do two loads. Thankfully there was nothing in either washer, but the top dryer had the same clothes that were in the washers on Tuesday morning in it, and it was cold, indicating that it had been off quite awhile. WTF? I pulled the stuff out and threw it on the table, and put my loads into the dryers. Then when I went to retrieve them, I ran into the owner of the laundry. I didn’t say anything to her, she was too busy talking on her cell phone anyway.

You see, about a week or so ago, I got up at about 8:30 in the morning and went to do my laundry.. and there was stuff sitting on the table that had been sitting there for at least several days, if not a week. Dry, clean laundry.  Just piled there by the next person who was sick of waiting for the idiot who left their stuff in the dryer to come get it. And it sat there. For at least a few more days.

Both the washer and dryer have timers on them.. how hard is it to come down and take a peek.. or, say.. look at a clock or a watch when you start your wash? 30 mins wash, 60 mins dry. ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, PEOPLE! “Oops-ing” by an hour, I’ve done that.. thrown stuff in the dryer, and went shopping, lost track of time cooking/cleaning, over-napped. But, DAYS? Wouldn’t you start to wonder “hey… I left my stuff in the laundry room.. better go get it” after say, a few hours? Especially since its a shared facility, maybe there might be someone else waiting to use it?

Just to top it off, I’ve also experienced the exact opposite.  The same day I got up at 8:30 to do my laundry, an older resident decided she needed to as well. When I went to get my first set out of the washers (I had fully intended on doing more, as I had at least 3 more loads left to do) she was in the laundry room, waiting for me to come switch out my stuff. I humbled myself and let her take over the washers. Then, when the dryers were close to being done (because I keep track of the time! whoa, what a concept!) I went to check and see how much time was left.. she was already in there waiting!! Maybe it’s just my paranoia, but it felt like she was being really pushy.