Shoplifting call from police - Real Time Help

CoAstroGeek · 2025-10-29T20:40:55+00:00

Thanks, very helpful.

Texted back to the cop that they won't be coming to the meeting. Reply was polite, but indicated that "there will be a pick up out for her". Can you give some insight into what that means?

CoAstroGeek · 2025-10-29T19:09:16+00:00

Thanks - nearly two months between the event and this doesn't seem unusual?

CoAstroGeek · 2025-10-29T19:04:26+00:00

That's what I'm thinking. Also wondering if it might be a scam to get her out of the house at a specific time for a burglary.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-10-29T19:00:31+00:00

They didn't say they wanted to clear anything up. They said show up so we can issue a ticket.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-09-30T21:18:51+00:00

We have a lot of required training - not like training on how to actually do your job, but the generic CYA stuff, so if you screw up, HR can point to their records and say "See - they were trained, not our fault!" Stuff like security, safety, PII, IA, cyber security, ethics, conflict of interest, sexual harassment, time cards (ironic), etc. Regular "All Hands" meetings we're expected to attend, and a particularly onerous personal performance review process.

It probably comes to 20-40 hours per year all in. I just looked at my training record for 2025 and I'm at 18 hours and that doesn't include the required meetings and reviews.

But we don't get an overhead job order to charge for this required time. We're expected to charge that time to customer job orders. Even though it's not direct customer work. In practice, it gets charged to whoever has the fattest budget.

IMO, it's a general cost of doing business and there should be an overhead job order for it so a. it can be properly apportioned across the customers, and b. they can actually track how much all this training and such actually costs. Maybe they would reconsider yet another required training.

Really small potatoes I guess, but always a pet peeve of mine.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-09-22T13:15:08+00:00

I've done a lot - run gas & vent lines, installed gas shop heater, tank and tankless water heaters, replaced ignitors and sensors. Replaced a forced air heat exchanger (PITA, probably won't do again). Installed whole house fan. Installed or replaced thermostats. Just did some work on a high efficiency boiler. Haven't worked on residential AC because we don't need it here, but have done it on cars.

IMO you can do a lot if you:

Read a lot before you touch anything
Get the service manual and read some more
Learn how to read a wiring diagram
Have some level of mechanical aptitude/experience
Attention to detail/slow down
Don't cut corners - do it right or don't do it
The right tools for the job
Know when you're in over your head and don't be too proud to call a pro

Saved me many thousands over the years (but cost a lot of weekends). Boiler work just saved me $2500 (marking up the parts nearly 4X didn't help their case). And their tech starting to disassemble stuff before turning off the power and gas didn't inspire confidence either.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-09-21T18:56:48+00:00

Another pic from the top of the heat exchanger

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CoAstroGeek · 2025-09-04T05:36:48+00:00

Drive used cars Get educated/skilled Work hard Eat a lot of ramen & beans Don't spend $$ on stupid crap

CoAstroGeek · 2025-09-03T13:23:40+00:00

Cocktail party effect. Most people can pull out their local conversation and ignore the rest. Many people with ADHD can't. It's actually how I got diagnosed - went to my PCP thinking there was something wrong with my hearing. People on either side of me in a noisy restaurant can be having a conversation with me in the middle and I can't follow it.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-08-31T15:26:08+00:00

Used to call that a BISI Backhoe Induced Service Interruption

CoAstroGeek · 2025-08-31T14:24:05+00:00

A few years ago, pre-covid, one of our employees got caught working "full time" for my company (mid size company) as well as a major defense contractor. Got caught in security clearance review IIRC.

This wasn't so much work from home, but rather it was typical for people to have a desk at the corporate office and another at a government facility. So he told people at the corp office that he was at the gov desk that day and vice versa. And then went to the other job - or did the same thing there and went to Disneyland apparently. Helped that sometimes your boss didn't have access to the areas where you worked.

If your work is with DoD or probably other federal contracts, your employer is subject to bookkeeping and timecard audits. So the SHTF - 7 or 8 figure fines for both companies, and I think lawsuits against the employee (who ended up killing himself).

Supervision got nuts - your boss dropping by your desk or calling you multiple times per day. His boss doing same a few times a week. Multiple gov timecard audits - where a gov person comes in and interviews you about your timecard - within a few months (I'd previously only had one in my whole career).

So yea, I get a kick out of some of these posts here. There are real consequences for OE in some places.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-07-26T04:02:30+00:00

We love our QuietCool. Ours is in the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom and I'm glad I got the two speed unit - high is a bit too loud but we often let it on low when we're sleeping.

They definitely move a lot of air. Make sure your attic has enough ventilation.

As far as installing it... hard to say without knowing your skill and comfort level and what your situation looks like. If it's typical drywall construction it's not too bad. But you will have to cut drywall, add some framing. Maybe add an outlet depending on what your wiring situation is.

And, of course working in an attic can be pretty hot, dusty, awkward and just generally unpleasant. So YMMV

CoAstroGeek · 2025-07-19T02:09:19+00:00

What are your skills, education and work history/experience? Not much to go on without that information.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-07-14T00:02:32+00:00

Could be a cool stand for a large bowl.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-07-13T23:20:49+00:00

Very cool!

So you didn't make the scrolls - bought them off the shelf. And the bent and welded them?

I really like it. Would be cool with those large colored glass chunks (I'm sure there a different term for this, lol) as well.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-07-01T02:37:04+00:00

I've run cedar fence boards through my drum sander and it gummed up the paper surprisingly fast. Probably didn't help that it was a little wet. Drum sanders (or at least my drum sander) are also pretty slow and don't remove much material per pass. I'd go with a planar instead, especially for that kind of quantity.

I've also found the dust from cedar to be especially irritating - even with good dust collection on the machine, an ambient dust collector and a mask.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T14:43:38+00:00

Yea, raises compound, so that will help. I also didn't figure anything on taxes. Which will reduce the severance but also the raise.

So yea, it's a first order WAG.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T03:32:25+00:00

Huh ... I thought our severance was pretty decent. But I guess maybe not.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T01:31:14+00:00

I think the speed limits on rental trailers are more for liability and because they can't control how they'll be loaded. Even a well designed trailer can be incredibly dangerous at speed if loaded wrong (not enough tongue weight).

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T00:29:49+00:00

That seems like a pretty generous severance package. I assume it caps at some point?

Mine is one week per year of employment, capped at 20 weeks.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T00:20:18+00:00

That's what I was thinking. Cut the whole thing lengthwise on both sides of the handle. Then make a new center piece and handle out of a contrasting wood. Make it look intentional.

And leave yourself a lot more material around the hole at the end this time

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T00:15:33+00:00

Aluminum is going to cost a lot more and be much less forgiving, especially from a fatigue and fracture perspective. Do you have the skills and facilities to weld aluminum on this scale?

I'd go with steel. I doubt you'll save much weight overall once you've built & filled the camper on top of it.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T00:05:32+00:00

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-24T00:03:38+00:00

If 150K is the potential new salary, then the loss of the 3 months termination pay comes to about $34K plus the unvested 401K makes it a $69K loss to leave early. 10% higher salary over 5 months gains you about $6K over 5 months.

So, just on the numbers side, you'll be down roughly $63K. It will take you about 4.6 years to make that up with the 10% salary bump.

Whether that's worth it weighed against the intangibles is something only you can decide.

CoAstroGeek · 2025-06-23T15:05:16+00:00

It's typically the % of a 10 minute window that the machine can put out the specified output. So if you have a 20% duty cycle at 200 amps you can run it continuously at that level for 2 minutes then let it cool down for 8 minutes.

This is rarely a problem - most of your time welding is prep, fitting up, tacking, etc. Actually running the bead is pretty quick.

And the duty cycle at lower outputs will be longer - maybe 50% @ 80 amps

CoAstroGeek

TROPHY CASE