GOGS...Grumpy Old Gits Society..

I remember telling you to do this YEARS AGO.

IGNORE the news channels, it's bad for your health.

I can remember when cars needed a chassis lubrication ( 12-20 grease points) and an oil change every 1000 miles, new spark plugs and ignition points at 10,000 and doing a valve job at 20,000 miles was not uncommon. Trading in a car after 3 years was routine and that car, with 30-40,000 miles on it had already had 2 sets of tires! What is a poor manufacturer, dealer, service garage to do? And, if you think things are bad now, just wait. Current cars are all being sold with touch screen displays to control everything but the accelerator and brakes. They are touted to offer "features and benefits" Features: you now need to take your eyes off the road to control functions that you once could simply by identifying various knobs and switches by feel. Benefits: Cost savings to the manufacturer - it's cheaper to procure and install a single electronic module that a multitude of knobs, rheostats, switches and sliders - further benefit big replacement job when a touch screen goes off or a chip fails.

EM

I have only driven my latest car about 2500 miles so I decided to check the oil... LOTS of information in the manual and on the car about how to check it, how to be careful that spilling it will cause albino zombies to feed small animals high carbohydrate food and induce cardiac arrest even an advertisement for a particular brand of oil!

But

what

type

of

oil

is

NOWHERE

to be found.

Now I am hill billy enough to know that adding 200 ml of 15W-30 to say 5W-40 or whatever will not kill the motor but something this simple, this basic just boggles my mind...

I asked the dealer and he said: Oh there is this sheet of paper that we use when we check the car before giving it to you ... check that. It's in the glove box... next to the cheesy poof...

I haven't had a moan here for a while.

For about 2 years Wor Lass and I have been discussing, now and then, the possibility of a road-trip to Italy. I have to be honest, I do fancy the idea - just not with her. I have a couple of reasons for this:-

1. She suffers from restless leg syndrome (yes, really! Google it). She won't attempt any of the potential remedies. When she gets an episode while we're travelling in the car I can't concentrate on the driving. Then, all I want to do is get to our destination as soon as possible, and after half an hour of her fidgeting I'm going mad. Journey spoiled!

2. When I go on holiday, I want to get away from it all. She will not turn her bloody 'phone off! If it's not one or other of her parents calling, it's her sister, or her daughter, or one of her colleagues who (conveniently) forgot we're away. Very rarely are any of these calls more than idle chit-chat. .....And yet again, I'm getting crosser and crosser with every word that passes between them. WE'RE ON HOLIDAY!! Leave us alone!

For a couple of months, the Italy trip has been on indefinite hold due to her parents (both well into their 80s) and sister not being in the best of health and me insisting that it's not a good idea for us to be so far away when something serious could kick-off. Now she's started making noises that I'm being daft in using this as a reason not to go. If I'm honest, I could probably learn to cope with the RLS thing, but how the hell do I convince her to only have her 'phone on for, say, an hour in the evening. Seriously, for me this is going to be my holiday-of-a-lifetime, I don't want it tainted. I just want her to disconnect while we're away, I'm sure she'd enjoy it all the more as well. She keeps saying she needs to get away, but she'll never be if she's constantly waiting for her 'phone to ring, will she?

Our summer holiday this year was ruined (for me, at least...) by her mother 'phoning to say WL's sister was getting blinding headaches and should go to the doctor. What happened? We were on our way home within the hour. OK, so it was something serious-ish and sister got admitted to hospital, but there was nothing we could do and hospital only allows 2 visitors at a time. There were plenty of other people who could (and did) visit. Holiday wasted; I might just as well have been back at work.

My mother's in her 80s and other than my brother (who, in any case, lives 150mls nearer than me) she has no other living relatives. I'm certain she wouldn't expect me to rush straight to her hospital bed from holiday if she wasn't at death's door.

Rant over (I think..........) What say you? Am I the one being unfair?

Ecurie Martini said:

Odd coincidence - my ex also suffers from RLS but is medicated.

Click to expand...

WL won't consult the medical profession about it because she's convinced they won't be able to do anything for her. The reality is that she is too impatient to go through various tests and trials until the right treatment for her is hit-upon. Her daughter and I both see this as martyrdom, but WL will not be told.

OK, here's my latest rant....... Recently I have had multiple instances of female customer service agents (I use the term because it's not exclusively shop assistants) who are at least half my age calling me "darlin'". Personally, I find this even more offensive than young lads in Halfords, B&Q, etc, calling me "mate".

What happened to courtesy, and respect for your elders? At 60, Wor Lass and I are probably around the average age of all our neighbours. Our neighbours who are obviously older than us are Mr & Mrs Mains, Mr Johnson, Mrs Kerry, etc. We know their Christian names (apart from Mrs Kerry) but would never use them. .....And certainly would never greet one another in familiar terms, such as "Mornin' mate". They aren't social acquaintances, so we don't treat them as such.

While I'm on the subject, if I introduce myself as Stuart, I object to the other person immediately referring to me as "Stu". If I want you to call me Stu, that is how I will introduce myself. In either event, don't ever call me Stuey - that will guarantee extreme wrath every time.

OK, moving on from yesterday's rant, here's another that's just come to mind.

We had a delivery from Amazon. The courier was faffing about with his 'phone. It was cold, drizzly and windy. I said something like "can I just sign for the parcels so I can shut the door and keep the weather outside?". "You don't sign for them," came the reply "I'm trying to get the GPS signal so the system knows they've been delivered." He must have been there at least 3 minutes.

AFAICT GPS accuracy is 8-10ft minimum. If Amazon are delivering to, say, a block of flats, how the hell can they prove the parcel(s) have been delivered to the right person?

To me this is yet another example that proves the world's gone mad. A delivery sheet (on recycled paper) and he'd have been on his way in seconds with incontrovertible proof of correct delivery. :wacko:

why as i being made to feel inadequate, an outsider,someone of less importance because i dont fit a graph?

I went to the "Wellman" clinic for a occasional human MOT the other day.

Im obese because my 79 year old waist line is an ink lines width the wrong side of a graph line, making me

some kind of freak, i need to get a radical grip of my diet and stuff.so they say.

They went into melt down in regard to my blood, yes i know im not of the medical profession but when i cut my

finger making breakfast this morning, even i with a lack of knowledge about such things could clearly see that

it was red , so wheres the problem there ?

i must add that there was one thing that even i realize needs addressing , they pointed out that my my cholesterol

count was well below the national average, although im not keen on these statistical assessments whereby everyone

should fit a certain pigeon hole i will try to raise my cholesterol so that im a little more in line with the norm,

Dose this mean ill live to my 80th birthday ?

mac

It's that time of year............

Idiots behind steering wheels (I refuse to call them drivers because most don't have a clue how to drive properly) who seem to have developed the ability to see in the dark unaided. The lights on the car are there so that you can be seen, you morons!

Which made me think...... BMW (and others) have fitted automatic lights as standard for 20+ years. Instead of some of the rubbish that gets fitted to cars these days, shouldn't automatic lights be fitted to all cars by law?? By that I'm not referring to DRLs, I'm on about having lights illuminated front & rear as soon as natural lighting dims.