All good things

[BoggleOtaku]

BWT1213, this basically amounts to a desperate plea.

Spotify lifetime streams compare at 675+ million (PK) to 4.5M (HRL) to too low to list (T)
Monthly listeners compare at 10.6M to 112k to 3k.

I was familiar with PK when it came out, but hadn't heard it for years until recently.
I wondered why.

First ever official music video of PK made this year.
This, a 2005 remaster of the song, and recent major covers account for a resurgence.

OK, I'll admit,
It's a desperate plea from me,
as my teenager
sings Psycho Killer incessantly.

[bwt1213]

You can kill that song for good with either "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, or "Transfusion", by Nervous Norvis.

[dannyb]

All of this talk of electricians and wires caused these lines to run through my head for a few days now:

Can't seem to face up to the facts.
Tenses and nervous, can't relax.
Can't sleep, bed's on fire.
Don't touch me ,I'm a real like wire.

[bwt1213]

I was able to pay the electrician's spouse (same kind of company setup we had back when we were young -- husband and wife) $2,000. He did extra. He worked hard. And he said good things about his wife and children while he was working hard. I'll see what else I can do for them, too. This is so much like what my life was like when I was his age. But I had only two children. He has seven! I can't imagine life like that. But I was able to show him Radio Garden and TV Garden (two websites). He really liked Saltillo Mexico for Radio Garden -- it was really good rock music (I liked it a lot) and it was all Spanish! And when he got home, he showed both to his kids and they loved it, too. High praise: they thought it was "cool". I sent an email to his wife telling her how much I appreciated his hard work and professionalism, and told her he'd said really nice things about her, so since he was so exemplary that meant she must be really super. I hope they all have a really nice Christmas.

[BoggleOtaku]

I would mainly make sure he felt like the job went as expected or more smoothly and happy with the outcome, especially since sounds like family friend. If some issue came up (like he felt like he underbid it), then address it.

The framers that did our addition were great. I roasted a tritip in the back yard for sandwiches or similar for their crew on a few of the days. They finished a day earlier than they estimated in their bid and roofed and sided my shed to match my house just to help me out.

Another story: first day the framers attaching a 20' glue-lam beam for the family room and 15' for the kichen and then demolished the back wall of the house. But they saved the several curcuits (for kitchen, dining room, family room, bathroom, etc) that had run through the back wall and nailed them up to the ceiling so that they were all still functional. First day the electrician made an appearance we told him we wanted to keep those circuits as long as possible to allow functionality in the house since we were living there through the remodel with temporary kitchen setup in dining room (microwave, fridge, etc.). When he was leaving we found he had taken all of those circuits apart anyway (that's about all he did), and then he told us he was going on vacation for a week. Bad vibes...

[Naboka]

Most honest, competent, hardworking individuals undervalue their service and work. Unlike the self-servers, they want you to benefit from what they do as much as themselves. Their lower costs per unit of labor (partially because they often tend to be more efficient and take less time to finish a task) allows you to be generous.

I forget the joke about what it takes to be happy--something about expectations. If you expect 2 tacos and get one you're unhappy, but if you expect 2 and get 3, you're really happy.

The problem with being too generous with people who undervalue their work is they often feel they don't deserve it and it makes them uncomfortable. So, you're left with balancing what you'd like to give with what they would be comfortable with.

Eating healthy is expensive. You could either give German a gift card to a health food store. Or ask you daughter to find out what he buys and get him some expensive items. Expensive items don't register as being as costly as a $100 gift card. It doesn't have to be food. Might be something he's wanted.

And, you know, $170 is 10%. But that might make him uncomfortable. It's always satisfying to be as generous as you can afford to the degree it doesn't make the recipient uncomfortable. So you're the only one who can calculate what's comfortable for both you and German.

[bwt1213]

Bwt1213, I once acted as general contractor for my own home addition. It all went well except the electricition I hired. He was to do work, including new induction stove and double oven circuits, in two phases: 1 Pass rough-in inspection and 2 Pass final inspection. When he said ready for the rough inspection I took a look in the crawl space and found he hadn't actually done the home runs but had only poked a few feet of wire into the crawl space from the appliance locations so it looked like they were ready to wire in. I asked what he thought he was doing and he told me that it would pass rough inspection like my contract with him specified because the inspector would never look in the crawl space. Surprise, I want it to work as well!

You made me horrified. And then I had German come over to do the electrical work. Here's what happened:
He said he'd be here at 8:00 AM. He had to stop and buy some parts and didn't arrive until 8:30. He worked without a break from then until 5:03. No lunch break, not even a restroom break. He did request that I put on a radio with music, because he liked that when he worked. I determined that he liked Spanish-language music and so I set up my wife's computer on Radio Garden and found a nice station out of Saltillo Mexico that played really good rock music entirely in Spanish. He liked that a lot. And when the station went to news broadcasts, he requested that I find something out of Nashville. No problem. I offered him dinner. He refused. He said he had lots of water in his truck, and fruit and nuts to eat because he was trying to eat healthy food.

So, he rewired a number of things. Washer went from ungrounded pair of outlets to two GFI outlets, and on a separate circuit with its own breaker instead of being on the same circuit as the refrigerator and microwave. Same deal for refrigerator and the sole outlet in the kitchen on the counter. Microwave also on its own circuit. He found two outlets behind the stove and they are also on their own circuit and GFI now.

Total cost was about $1700. I was thinking about three times that. My daughter (friends with German) thought it would be more like $10K.

I told German that he'd done a terrific job and thanked him profusely. I think I ought to do more than that. Suggestions?

[BoggleOtaku]

Bwt1213, I once acted as general contractor for my own home addition. It all went well except the electricition I hired. He was to do work, including new induction stove and double oven circuits, in two phases: 1 Pass rough-in inspection and 2 Pass final inspection. When he said ready for the rough inspection I took a look in the crawl space and found he hadn't actually done the home runs but had only poked a few feet of wire into the crawl space from the appliance locations so it looked like they were ready to wire in. I asked what he thought he was doing and he told me that it would pass rough inspection like my contract with him specified because the inspector would never look in the crawl space. Surprise, I want it to work as well!

[bwt1213]

Wow, that sounds complicated. I wouldn't have figured that out. I just would have 'hand washed' my clothes and 'air dried' after until my power was restored.

The electrician visited and found a junction box in the crawl space that was improperly wired about six different ways, some involving aluminum wiring and bad splicing, and including live wires (!!!) lying on the floor with no insulation on them. Home inspector hadn't visited the crawl space, apparently. Repair/rewiring will cost about $1200. In the meantime, I have a microwave back and I'm living with the refrigerator and washer plugged in elsewhere. I can guarantee that if I went down into the crawl space I would not have returned alive. I turned 79 on the 13th and my breathing is really bad now, especially with cold air.

[crazykate]

Good to hear your update, Naboka, and I'm glad you've found other ways to enjoy the game!

[dannyb]

That is good news. I hope that you can get this problem resolved. I'm glad that you are still playing. Be well.

[Naboka]

Hey Naboka, how are you doing? Were you able to find out what is up with your hand? Hoping that you are okay.

Yep, I'm doing well. Compared to the problems some people have, this hand thing is no big deal.

Had an electromyography Wednesday. There's compression in the median nerve which serves the involved fingers and thumb. Will see the orthopedic surgeon again this week and probably get carpal tunnel repair. The neurologists thinks something else is going on but won't be able to isolate what until after the carpal tunnel work.

I can still cross my fingers, so...

On a plus note, it's been fun finding words on the boards that don't have a lot of points to give. I try to only play a few words, but if a larger board is predominantly left-finger letters, I'll try to retire it. Even if the hand gets fixed, I might just continue to play this new way. So much less stress.

[dannyb]

Hey Naboka, how are you doing? Were you able to find out what is up with your hand? Hoping that you are okay.

[BoggleOtaku]

Maybe I should consider that a 100% success rate, then!

Nowadays I've been mainly trying to troubleshoot Christmas lights. The three strand ones are confusing, why certain bulbs burn out and continues working while with others a whole section goes out.

[Spike1007]

I've replaced an electric stove burner and a fried switch, but my "expertise" doesn't extend much beyond that. I'm impressed with your list, and given that you're still around, it looks like you know what you're doing, and when to say no.

I visited a few national labs. The only power outage (no idea whether it was mouse-related) was in the cafeteria one day. The lights and cash registers were out, but for some reason they could still cook. The checker would just eyeball your tray and charge some random amount. I ended up with two chili cheese bacon jalapeno burgers with fries for $5.