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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 4, 2024 10:20:38 GMT -5
Besides, there is no "wakka-wakka" music, like a real porno movie.
Or, at least, back in the day.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 4, 2024 10:46:29 GMT -5
The joys of apartment living. When my wife and I were first married, we lived in an apartment on the second floor of a three-story building. We were frequently awakened late at night by the familiar "Dun-Dun" tones from Law & Order, as our downstairs neighbors were hard of hearing and turned their TV up WAY too loud. They apparently liked that show A LOT, as it was almost every night. Our upstairs neighbors were a rotating cast of characters. - First, we had one 20-something guy whose parents were paying his bills. He really liked playing his music loud, and he REALLY liked Britney Spears. He wound up getting evicted after having one too many drunken parties and pissing off the family across the hall from us who'd just had a baby. - He was replaced by a very nice Asian family who were very quiet and who also spoke no English. This only became a problem when we noticed water dripping through our ceiling and went up and knocked on their door. We couldn't understand each other at all, so we brought them down to our apartment, which they were reluctant to do, and showed them what was happening. They ran back upstairs and threw open their bathroom door to find that their 6-year old had decided to play with his toys in the bathtub and kept the water running until it overflowed. Good times. - They were replaced by a female college student whose parents were also paying her bills, but she was respectful, quiet, rarely there, and didn't flood my apartment from above, so that was a win. We moved out sometime during her lease into our first house.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 4, 2024 10:51:25 GMT -5
I lived in an apartment which obviously had very thin ceilings. Whenever my intercom buzzed, the dog in the apartment underneath would howl. I did get on fine with my downstairs neighbour, she said the dog seemed really scared of any intercom buzzer or doorbell.
He was a nice dog, but not particularly brave. There was a communal garden in this block. At one point, we had a rat problem. The landlord and council were dealing with it by laying down traps and the like, but rats were coming through a lot. On one occasion, a rat appeared and the dog howled - and then ran up the fire escape. I had no idea that a dog would be scared of a rat because this was a bigger dog, and yet I had a friend who had a Jack Russell - and that would frequently go after rodents.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 4, 2024 15:10:39 GMT -5
Besides, there is no "wakka-wakka" music, like a real porno movie. Or, at least, back in the day. Would love to know the history of porno movie music, just very strange and unique
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Oct 4, 2024 15:30:22 GMT -5
My wife and I were pretty lucky over the years when we lived in apartments/condominiums. A few noisy parties every once in a while, but no night after night noise issues. We once had a guy on his deck below our bedroom who smoked so much weed he made Snoop Dogg seem like a neophyte. It did get annoying in the summer when we had our window open through the night and this clown would be out at 2am smoking and coughing. The worst was when he was on vacation or in between jobs or something and he seemingly smoked weed all day long, deep into the night, day after day for multiple weeks. We finally slipped a note under his door politely suggesting he maybe find somewhere else to smoke or we would get the building manager on his ass. This did work
The funniest story I can recall about a noise issue was when we were awoken around 6am one day to the sound of two extremely drunk guys dragging a grill into the parking lot of our building, thinking it was the perfect time to noisily BBQ some hot dogs or whatever. It didn't take long for our building manager (who took no shit) to arrive looking ready to kill someone. Eventually a cab came and took the two drunk dudes away (poor cabbie). They didn't live in the building and had been invited over by a girl who did, who was also blotto
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 4, 2024 18:02:48 GMT -5
I'd almost forgotten about this. The last time I lived in an apartment, my next-door neighbor used to sneeze loudly, over and over, ten or fifteen times in a row, multiple times per night, night after night. At first I was sympathetic about his evident suffering, but it got annoying fast. I never spoke to him about it.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 6, 2024 9:40:09 GMT -5
I have recently had to help a friend with her car. Her rear tyre’s pressure is going down rather quickly. It should be 32.0 PSI, but it’s often going down to 20 PSI within a week - and often lower than that. I have used a tyre inflator, and I am happy to do that weekly (as I have been). She doesn’t know about the technical side of a car, which is fine.
What I am concerned about is the bad advice she has been given. One of her siblings told her driving at 5 PSI is safe. Which it isn’t. Would anyone here agree with that? Personally, I believe anything below 20 is under-inflated and not at all helpful. I’ve known people - including a friend - tell me they’ve driven at 10 PSI, and that is absolutely not safe at all. But 5 PSI? That’s bad advice, and thankfully she won’t be listening to her sibling.
I will be checking it again in a few days. If necessary, I’ll change a tyre for her, but I do want to check the valve first because I wonder if that might be the problem, especially as it’s only the rear tyre that is under-inflating on a regular basis. A new valve, if needed, will be cheaper than a new tyre (she doesn’t have a spare).
Anyway, all that boring information aside, in my life, I do feel - and I don’t know if this is the same in a lot of countries - people, other than those of us who drive for a living, don’t always seem to care about maintaining and looking after a car. It seems they’ll wait for a problem. I’m not on about my friend now, but I know people who have their car serviced and then don’t seem to care about it until it’s serviced again.
I feel you should at least keep a check on windscreen wipers, brake fluid, tyre pressure, oil, belts and hoses, the battery, coolant level, etc. Not every day - who’d want to do that? - but regularly. And skills such as changing a tyre should be paramount. But in the conversations I’ve had, I’d say at least 55-60% of friends and acquaintances don’t bother to do it regularly. And then when there is an issue - e.g. screen wash not being topped up regularly causing visibility issues - it only means they have to call out a breakdown service or mechanic anyway.
There are some car owners here, I’m sure. Do you conduct regular checks or do you just leave it until your car is serviced?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 6, 2024 9:49:54 GMT -5
Most passenger car tires run at a recommended 30-35 PSI. 5 PSI is ridiculously low and is not just dangerous, but is going to run your friends tire.
She needs to get it checked. It’s very clearly leaking air and it’s not going to magically get better. Since it’s a slow-ish leak it sounds likely to be a valve stem, which is a pretty cheap fix. But whatever the fix is, it’s cheaper than adding a tow bill on to a new tire when they get stranded somewhere.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 6, 2024 9:56:06 GMT -5
Most passenger car tires run at a recommended 30-35 PSI. 5 PSI is ridiculously low and is not just dangerous, but is going to run your friends tire. She needs to get it checked. It’s very clearly leaking air and it’s not going to magically get better. Since it’s a slow-ish leak it sounds likely to be a valve stem, which is a pretty cheap fix. But whatever the fix is, it’s cheaper than adding a tow bill on to a new tire when they get stranded somewhere. I reckon it’s the valve, too. And a new valve is a hell of a lot cheaper than a tyre. A new tyre might be about £60, a new valve would be around £10. Thankfully she did ignore her sibling’s advice about 5 PSI, I was astonished. That is death wish behaviour. And I’m dismayed that her sister, who does own a car, is driving around with that mindset. Personally, I don’t ever want to be below 25-20. But humanity never fails to astound me, and that there is someone out there who claims 5 PSi is fine, well I am dismayed…
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 6, 2024 10:10:08 GMT -5
It is wise because I have known of folk who’ve called out either the AA or RAC (or any number of breakdown services) for something that could and should have been picked up by themselves. And a mechanic will come out, explain the issue in 3 minutes, sort it, and well, the person’s time has been wasted. And there could be further costs with a garage down the road.
I often used dental check analogy (or wider healthcare analogy). A dentist may give you a clean bill of health, but you might not see him or her for another year, so why not keep things in check the rest of the time. And if a filling feels loose, or something doesn’t feel right, sort it yourself or go back to the dentist. I feel from chats I’ve had that far too many people reply on the annual service and then ignore the car for the rest of the year, sometimes at great cost.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 6, 2024 10:38:00 GMT -5
Our washing machine died two weeks ago. It was only 5-6 years old or so and had already required service twice (and since neither the leak nor the control panel problems were motor-related, they weren't covered by the warranty. Not that the technician could do anything; on both occasions, his advice was to "start shopping for a new one").
After my traditional cranky old man's diatribe about how the industry sells us overpriced junk nowadays, my wife and I went and bought a new machine. Because the gods decided I wasn't cranky enough, the young seller who helped us described the shop's extended warranty program... which is basically "if anything breaks during the next five years, we'll take away the machine, scrap it, and replace it with a new one". Visions of mountains of discarded washing machines somewhere in a poor country crossed my mind. We keep talking about a sustainable economy, but this "can't fix anything anymore" attitude strikes me as eminently unsustainable. I get that it makes selling things faster and makes some people a lot of money. But it also seems absurd.
Well, anyhoo... I gotta admit that the new machine is remarkably quiet. Here's hoping the next five years will be equally quiet.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 6, 2024 13:05:01 GMT -5
(...) After my traditional cranky old man's diatribe about how the industry sells us overpriced junk nowadays, my wife and I went and bought a new machine. Because the gods decided I wasn't cranky enough, the young seller who helped us described the shop's extended warranty program... which is basically "if anything breaks during the next five years, we'll take away the machine, scrap it, and replace it with a new one". Visions of mountains of discarded washing machines somewhere in a poor country crossed my mind. We keep talking about a sustainable economy, but this "can't fix anything anymore" attitude strikes me as eminently unsustainable. I get that it makes selling things faster and makes some people a lot of money. But it also seems absurd. (...) I can relate; recently we had to buy a new water heater - the 'old' one was almost 10 years old and well past its warranty, but the only problem was that it had a tiny leak that - according to the repairman - would cost more to fix than to just get a new one. Otherwise, though, it worked fine. Throwing out an appliance that's almost in perfect working order just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So yeah, the "don't repair, just get a new one" philosophy is something I find perverse (I'm very much a proponent of the right to repair movement).
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,143
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Post by Confessor on Oct 7, 2024 11:54:56 GMT -5
My wife and I put our house on the market last week and have pretty quickly found another house which really ticks a lot of boxes for us. So, it'll be interesting to see how many offers on our house we get in the next few weeks.
Getting our house listed has been fairly full on though, as we wanted it on ASAP. I think it's going to be going live on the Estate Agent's website and other sites like RightMove etc today or tomorrow. We already have one viewing arranged for this Wednesday from somebody who spotted the "For Sale" sign outside the house late last week.
Anyway, it's all kind of exciting so far.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 7, 2024 17:03:43 GMT -5
My wife and I put our house on the market last week and have pretty quickly found another house which really ticks a lot of boxes for us. So, it'll be interesting to see how many and how quickly we get any offers on our house in the next few weeks. Getting our house listed has been fairly full on though, as we wanted it on ASAP. I think it's going to be going live on the Estate Agent's website and other sites like RightMove etc today or tomorrow. We already have one viewing arranged for this Wednesday from somebody who spotted the "For Sale" sign outside the house late last week. Anyway, it's all kind of exciting so far. Good luck on the upcoming sale.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 8, 2024 4:30:55 GMT -5
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