Fed up? Feel free to vent here, and get it off your chest!

Medusa said:
Oh, right there with you!! :mad:

The leaf blowers have been out, in our area, since around Easter Sunday and I fracking despise them!

They are so freaking loud and, as you've said, seem to accomplish very little. The leaf blower guys will be out there for hours doing what seems like nothing but disturbing the entire neighborhood.

I am usually on the phone with a friend or listening to a book when walking the dog and, of course, I can't hear a thing when anywhere in the vicinity of those cursed things.

They are slowly being banned, but sadly, the bans have not gotten to my area yet.

Map of Leaf Blower Bans
Click to expand...

In some communities leaf blowers are only used on weekdays so once you retire you get the full experience.
 

oldman said:
Once a pilot is trained on a certain plane, that’s the only plane the pilot will fly, unless he asks to be trained on a different plane like an Airbus A-330. If he gets certified on the A-330, then that’s the only plane he or she will fly. Familiarity is very important in flying and flying the same aircraft continuously is like driving the same car day in and day out. You will know where all the controls are without hardly looking.
Click to expand...
Thank you - very interesting to know, especially since my father-in-law worked for McDonnell-Douglas as a flight dispatcher, arranging pilot training. When planes were sold to buyers who didn't already fly DC-10s, for instance, he arranged the MC-D training pilots to teach the buyer's crews how to fly the aircraft.

He said the MC-D crews, who largely lived in Los Angeles, were typically happy to be dispatched to Arizona (where the training took place), but their wives weren't so thrilled about being single parents for several weeks at a clip.

My FIL was a lovely man who tried to be sensitive to what was going on among his crews.

Until you wrote the above, I didn't realize how different one plane's cockpit was from another, or that most pilots were trained on only one or two planes.
 

Many people are of the belief that pilots fly a variety of planes, which is not true. Airlines want their pilots to know all of the ins and outs of the plane they are flying. Up and until Boeing came out with the 787 or Dreamliner, all Boeing planes used a yoke or control wheel. (It kind of looks like the steering wheel on your car.) Whereas, Airbus uses a Sidestuck or what pilots call a joystick because that’s what it looks like. There is a significant difference between the two styles of controls.

Both the Boeing control wheel (or yoke) and the Airbus Sidestick have the same controls. Both allow the pilot to ascend and/or descend the plane and to make the turns, left or right. It would be quite a trick for pilots to keep switching back and forth, so airlines decided to keep their pilots on only one aircraft, unless the pilot decided they would like to fly a larger or smaller plane. When a pilot changes planes, that person will spend numerous weeks in a simulator of their new aircraft until their trainer thinks they are ready to be evaluated by a “check pilot.”

Once they have completed their training in the simulator, (or as pilots call them sims), and their trainer thinks they are ready for their conversion, the pilot will get to impress their abilities to a “check pilot” who will sit in the cockpit behind him in a jumpseat. The “check pilot” will request the pilot to put the pilot through several different maneuvers. It has been my experience that if a pilot is going to fail his check ride, it’s almost always in the landing. They either descend too quickly or not quickly enough. The test is done in a real plane.

If they descend too quickly, they get to the runway too soon and then they have to abort the landing and do a “go around” and try again. If they descend too late, they may run out of runway and so they will immediately need to abort the landing and go around to try again.

The “check pilot” is a pilot who has flown that plane for several years and because of their experience, the “check pilot” will know if the new pilot is ready to fly the plane that they have selected as their next aircraft.

I had been flying a B-737 for about 7-8 years and decided to move up. I spent about 3 weeks in a 767 simulator 2-3 hour segments. When I took my check ride, my trainer was my check pilot, which is unusual. I went through the whole test and was finishing the test and had prepared for landing. I had the plane lined up beautifully and was only 1 mile from landing when I heard the air traffic controller in my ear to pull up and go around. This was in July and the ATC is telling me there was ice on the runway. So I knew I was set up by my check pilot and the ATC.

I pulled up, the ATC told me to climb to 2500 feet and turn left to go around. This is called a “TOGA” or a Take Off Go Around. As I was coming out of my turn, the ATC turns me to turn the other way and tells me I’m OK to land. I completed the cycle and landed. I had passed and was assigned to the B-757 & 767. Eight years later, I made Captain.

A few more lessons and you should be ready for your check ride.
 
Internet providers are mad. Crazy.

So, I have an internet connection at 1gb, and phone package. The contract stipulates that prices will increase by inflation +4% annually. My package went from roughly £57 to £61 a month. I accept that, it's what I signed up for. But, as it happens, my contract with them expires July 7th. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, they offer a new contract on the web for £65 a month over 18 months. The thing is, I just had an increase, I think they should allow me to sign a new contract at the agreed £61. So I contacted them. They came back with an offer of £70 a month. What?!? No, I said, I've been offered £65, you're giving me an even higher price. Oh, they say - that's our web page price, we can't access those prices. Whose running things there, Bozo the clown?

Anyway, I looked about, and found a package from a different provider. They offer the same connection speed for £58 a month. I tell me current provider that I'll have to go elsewhere, and they offered me £65 a month. No, I said, I can get that online, I want to pay £61, since my price only just increased. We can't do that, they say.

I still have some time to let the steam subside. Internet connectivity shouldn't be this difficult.

But worse - it's like talking to a wall. If I call and say I want £61 a month, don't offer me £70, or £65. Say yes or no, and get on with it!
 
My rant is I have had anxiety attacks most of my life, and after an emergency room visit a couple of days ago, I learned the symptoms of low blood sugar and an anxiety attack are the same, and small glass of fruit juice will resolve the problem. Excuse me?! Shouldn't it be policy to check a person's blood sugar level when they think they are on the edge of death? Maybe they are on the verge of death, and counseling and anxiety pills will not fix the problem.

Trying to resolve the wrong problem doesn't work so well. I am so glad this time someone thought to check my blood sugar level. It took 3 visits to ER this month before someone checked my blood sugar level.

Check this out
"blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can indeed lead to a slowed heart rate (bradycardia). Severe hypoglycemia can cause cardiac arrhythmias, including heart block and sinus bradycardia. In some cases, hypoglycemia can even progress to asystole (absence of heartbeat)."

My beat had dropped to 30 the first time I went to ER and there was no blood sugar test.

How can this happen?
 
Vida May said:
My rant is I have had anxiety attacks most of my life, and after an emergency room visit a couple of days ago, I learned the symptoms of low blood sugar and an anxiety attack are the same, and small glass of fruit juice will resolve the problem. Excuse me?! Shouldn't it be policy to check a person's blood sugar level when they think they are on the edge of death? Maybe they are on the verge of death, and counseling and anxiety pills will not fix the problem.

Trying to resolve the wrong problem doesn't work so well. I am so glad this time someone thought to check my blood sugar level. It took 3 visits to ER this month before someone checked my blood sugar level.

Check this out
"blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can indeed lead to a slowed heart rate (bradycardia). Severe hypoglycemia can cause cardiac arrhythmias, including heart block and sinus bradycardia. In some cases, hypoglycemia can even progress to asystole (absence of heartbeat)."

My beat had dropped to 30 the first time I went to ER and there was no blood sugar test.

How can this happen?
Click to expand...
As someone who has struggled with both blood sugar levels and anxiety attacks I believe I know where you're coming from, @Vida May. They are indeed a lot alike, symptom wise.

Sounds like you have had some very frustrating experiences. I'm glad you got it sorted out.
 
KSav said:
As someone who has struggled with both blood sugar levels and anxiety attacks I believe I know where you're coming from, @Vida May. They are indeed a lot alike, symptom wise.

Sounds like you have had some very frustrating experiences. I'm glad you got it sorted out.
Click to expand...

I became very angry when I read that low blood sugar can lead to a low heart rate. I was held in the hospital for 3 days, and if they had checked my blood sugar, maybe they would have given me a cup of fruit juice and sent me home. On the other hand, could I have died if I was not lucky, considering nothing was done to raise my blood sugar?

I hate being a fussy old lady, but 3 days in the hospital is expensive, and when I think of Medicare and Medicaid providing health care for so many people, I don't think we can afford carelessness. Personally, I think if a bill gets paid or not should be in the power of the individual, with the hope that all of us keep the system honest and affordable. Running things through the insurer, who pays no matter what, seems a path to corruption and carelessness.
 
You cannot control anyone else.

I cannot be what I'm not. Change is relative. I can change within the confines of what I think is right and wrong, and what is achievable from the place I'm currently in.

I can't change others. At best, I can only offer opportunity. I can only try to understand them, to try to integrate their needs into my own, without giving so much that I no longer am true to myself.

Being a punchbag for someone else is horrible, and unproductive. In times of difficulty, and conflict, moving things forward to the mutual benefit of both. Insults from someone drunk are flaccid, pointless. Only an expression from a sober mind carries weight.

Alcohol is both a pleasant, and at times incredible tool for freedom, and a dark vicious drug in the wrong hands (or mindset).
 
Medusa said:
Oh, right there with you!! :mad:

The leaf blowers have been out, in our area, since around Easter Sunday and I fracking despise them!

They are so freaking loud and, as you've said, seem to accomplish very little. The leaf blower guys will be out there for hours doing what seems like nothing but disturbing the entire neighborhood.

I am usually on the phone with a friend or listening to a book when walking the dog and, of course, I can't hear a thing when anywhere in the vicinity of those cursed things.

They are slowly being banned, but sadly, the bans have not gotten to my area yet.

Map of Leaf Blower Bans
Click to expand...
Some N.J. towns have ordinances against the noise level of these machines, but from what I read, the restrictions still give them plenty of time to create disturbances, starting fairly early in the morning.
New Jersey Considers Ban On Gas Leaf Blowers: What You Need To Know
 

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