What's bugging you? -- 2026 --

[hawing]

It's bugging me slightly that I didn't get this thread started earlier in the day, but in my defense I've been sick all week.  

In related news (because it also bugs me), I don't know anymore how to get through my SO's family Christmas without catching a dang bug.  I even masked during part of the party.  🤧 🥺

[young guns]

43 minutes ago, hawing said:

It's bugging me slightly that I didn't get this thread started earlier in the day, but in my defense I've been sick all week.  

In related news (because it also bugs me), I don't know anymore how to get through my SO's family Christmas without catching a dang bug.  I even masked during part of the party.  🤧 🥺

Attend it virtually next year.

[GAME05]

I'd managed to get out of the 7am shift to stay on 8am. Just an hour but it makes a big difference to me, as I can get eight hours of sleep but still feel awful all day from getting up extra-early. But boss now implementing mandatory office hours and believes that if I can get out of 7am shift, a different co-worker can demand not to be put on office hours at all. So I'm about to be put back on 7am. I really really really hate 7am. 7am vs. 8am also doesn't effect our operations whatsoever. 

I don't see how the two things are at all related.  

[Thurston Fluff]

I had to have a tooth removed on Monday. On Tuesday Sai Ram gave us some free food for helping with their grand re-opening. Then today the Korean grocer next door gave us some free food for helping them out. For those who live in Appleton they're the original Koreana people. They gave us some beef bulgogi, fish cakes and potato salad. All of which are some of my favorites. Two of my favorite places give us stuff for free and I can't eat any of it. I'm just going to sit in a corner and cry now.

P.S. anyone who liked Koreana they still make most of their food at their store. The bulgogi is frozen and easy to make at home. All the sides that used to come with their food is there as well. The potato salad is done in batches only occasionally. It goes quickly when it's made. 

[Baldkin]

3rd job in the years, 3rd insurance policy, 3rd different doctor. 

 

Worried I just tore my LCL. Every other day I can barely walk. My new doctor brushed me off as someone looking to get opioids. 

[GreatNWwi]

10 hours ago, Baldkin said:

3rd job in the years, 3rd insurance policy, 3rd different doctor. 

 

Worried I just tore my LCL. Every other day I can barely walk. My new doctor brushed me off as someone looking to get opioids. 

I felt like I was close to getting that kind of treatment a few years ago when I had a shoulder impingement/rotator cuff issue.  I felt like the appointment changed when I said I don't want to mask the pain, I want to fix the problem.

[Samurai Bucky]

On 1/16/2026 at 9:53 AM, GreatNWwi said:

I felt like I was close to getting that kind of treatment a few years ago when I had a shoulder impingement/rotator cuff issue.  I felt like the appointment changed when I said I don't want to mask the pain, I want to fix the problem.

The exact same thing happened with my hip.  Of course, it helped when he showed the pits on the ball of my hip.

[hawing]

Super cold weather like Wisconsin is experiencing this month kind of bugs me, but what bugs me more is when an administrator at my work sends out an agencywide email with reminders of how to stay safe in extreme weather.  Especially the parts of these emails (which also arrive during heat waves) that say "If you must go out..." when you know the admin composing this can work from home as much as they want. 

[nate82]

Just now, hawing said:

Super cold weather like Wisconsin is experiencing this month kind of bugs me, but what bugs me more is when an administrator at my work sends out an agencywide email with reminders of how to stay safe in extreme weather.  Especially the parts of these emails (which also arrive during heat waves) that say "If you must go out..." when you know the admin composing this can work from home as much as they want. 

I moved to Arizona so I don’t have to deal with the extreme cold.  Heat I can deal with but the cold nope my body hates the cold.

[igor67]

I at least understand it a bit more at UW, because I definitely met plenty of people when I was a student, who went for the parka once it hit freezing because they thought that was what people meant by cold weather. 

[LouisEly]

On 1/15/2026 at 10:06 PM, Baldkin said:

3rd job in the years, 3rd insurance policy, 3rd different doctor. 

 

Worried I just tore my LCL. Every other day I can barely walk. My new doctor brushed me off as someone looking to get opioids. 

Do you by chance live in or near a major metropolitan area?  If so, I highly recommend OneMedical, which is affiliated with Amazon.  Loved it in Chicago, the doctor was on-time, listened, and was totally chill.

OneMedical is here in Denver, but for some reason only for Medicare patients.

[nate82]

Injury lawyers and their AI slop commercials.  I will take the Gruber one call that’s all commercials all day over these.  

[NeedMoreFans]

I probably ranted about this before, but youth sports culture is bugging me.

I have two daughters, both are in club swimming.  My oldest daughter also swims in high school, and her high school team is very, very good, so she needs to do a bit extra to be good enough to make the team each year.  Between club and high school swimming, she gets a total of 6 weeks off a year from swimming.  She will be off from early March to early April, then off for about two weeks in August.  During the seasons, she has practice 5-6 days a week, and also sees a personal trainer to help with strength (I feel like that's a bit over the top).

This all has led to her being at a level of injured since the end of October.  She has shoulder tendonitis, and now a pulled hip muscle, both of which have caused her to miss parts of swim meets.  The problem is if she doesn't do the club season, other swimmers on the high school team may pass her, and she could run the risk of getting cut.  Swimming is her life, but I wish there was room for something else.  (I am encouraging her to go out for track- I feel like that could actually help with conditioning for swimming.)

[GAME05]

The brother's daughters are all gonna be like 6'9"+ and there's a lot of volleyball in the family plus friends with a Top-5 D1 girls volleyball coach. But I suspect the obsessive dedication, wads of money, practice-time requirements and whole-family commitment required to actually reach college-scholarship talent is just going to be too much and won't happen. It's unfortunate kids are running themselves ragged to make the team which for 99.9% of them is supposed to be just a fun after-school sport.

[LouisEly]

Went to Costco last night around 8pm to grab a couple of things when I thought checkout would be quick.  The self-checkout line was unusually long, but walking by it appeared that there were a couple of checkout stations that were open but nobody using them.

Grabbed a couple of things, looked for another I couldn't find, and the line is still long, but there clearly are stations that are open.  Turns out there are three Costco employees scanning the items in carts with a hand scanner before people get to self checkout.  What is this?

Finally gets to me and I ask what they are doing.  Guy says "pre-scanning".  What the hell is that?  I look at the guy and say, "How does this make the checkout process more efficient?  Because there are open stations where people can be checking out right now."  He says I don't have to "pre-scan" and can use an open station.  "Thank you", and walk right past a couple of people getting "pre-scanned" and check out my two items.

I can assume this is some type of way to reduce retail theft to ensure everything that goes through self-checkout gets scanned and paid for.  But if it builds a line while there are stations open, it won't last.

[madbad2000]

It's not just self checkout, they do it for the main lines when it gets busy.  By pre scanning they do make it faster in some instances because you get up there, swipe, pay and roll out.  I'm not sure it's always faster because if a cart is full and/or you have a lot of smaller items they have to move them around, try to scan, keep track of items etc. which can make it slower.  It would make it a lot faster if the scanners had a credit card receiver and small printer.  You still have to stay in line and wait for cashier to complete transaction.  

[homer]

self-checkout kiosks cost retailers more than they save. Should cut them down to 5 items max.

[Samurai Bucky]

12 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Went to Costco last night around 8pm to grab a couple of things when I thought checkout would be quick.  The self-checkout line was unusually long, but walking by it appeared that there were a couple of checkout stations that were open but nobody using them.

Grabbed a couple of things, looked for another I couldn't find, and the line is still long, but there clearly are stations that are open.  Turns out there are three Costco employees scanning the items in carts with a hand scanner before people get to self checkout.  What is this?

Finally gets to me and I ask what they are doing.  Guy says "pre-scanning".  What the hell is that?  I look at the guy and say, "How does this make the checkout process more efficient?  Because there are open stations where people can be checking out right now."  He says I don't have to "pre-scan" and can use an open station.  "Thank you", and walk right past a couple of people getting "pre-scanned" and check out my two items.

I can assume this is some type of way to reduce retail theft to ensure everything that goes through self-checkout gets scanned and paid for.  But if it builds a line while there are stations open, it won't last.

I had a Costco employee help by scanning my cart full of 6 items.  I paid and all was well.  However, when I got to the exit, the receipt showed only five items were scanned.  I had to be escorted with a walk of shame to pay for the other item that was not scanned.

Mistakes are made, but it was extremely disappointing.  It certainly wasn't more efficient for me 😉

[TURBO]

Snow.

Snow is bugging me.

This storm we are experiencing in the Fox Valley is just insane!

50 mph winds on top of endless snow.

I don't know the official tally yet, but we have to have close to 2 feet (hard to tell because of the insane drifting) and another possible 10 inches today, on top of that wind?

Plows came through late last night for the second time, neighbor across the street appears to have 4 feet of snow at the bottom of his driveway.  Looks like my side of the street was spared, but we'll get it later, that's a fact.  They never dump it all on one side.

I've been out three times making sure all vents, etc aren't covered up by snow.  So far the furnace vents haven't been covered, but right up to the bottom (there is a tree that stops it from being completely covering right there), but all other vents have been drifted over all 3 times.

This is just nuts.

Anyone with elderly loved ones living alone in houses should definately check in on them.

This is supposed to go on all day today until at least 4:00 pm.

This might be the worst storm I can remember.  We've had a lot of snow in the past, but never 2 straight days of this kind of hell...

 

[igor67]

Farther west so it's wrapped up over here, but I have blisters starting just from using the snow blower and I have more to do this evening. We got 22 inches, Wausau hit 31 and just crushed their all time record

[TURBO]

Appleton final snow total - 27.5"

Gross.

[homer]

10 hours ago, TURBO said:

Appleton final snow total - 27.5"

Gross.

It's supposed to be warm at the end of the week. Hope it doesn't all melt at once.

[nate82]

14 hours ago, TURBO said:

Appleton final snow total - 27.5"

Gross.

Consolation prize it will be 100+ this weekend in Phoenix.  This is way too early for it to be 100.

[AKCheesehead]

Here in western AK we've had the coldest winter in the past 30-50 years.  Combine that (and the associated ice thickness) with an above average snow load for the area, and May breakup could be an interesting one this year, there's potential for some serious flooding anywhere that ice should happen to jam up.  On the positive side, next Tuesday we're forecast to NOT get below zero all day for the first time in I'm not sure when.  A couple months or more?

[TURBO]

On 3/17/2026 at 11:57 AM, nate82 said:

Consolation prize it will be 100+ this weekend in Phoenix.  This is way too early for it to be 100.

My son lives out there, Avondale...  He's been there about 6 months.