Foggy
Posted: Fri 8 March, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Fog, M1, People, Stupidity, Travel Leave a comment »Last night and this morning, my drive from/to work was extremely foggy. This morning was worse, but even last night was pretty entertaining.
What always gets me though is the way people handle foggy conditions when they’re driving – particularly with regard to one of the banes of my life, foglights.
At night, it’s exceptionally rare to need foglights – they’re only for times where visibility is exceptionally low, and you’ve no chance of seeing the vehicle in front of you without the additional lights. The good old Highway Code says
Rule 236 : You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226)
Rule 226 : “You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves.”
With lights on at night, it’s exceptionally rare to not be able to see the car 100 metres ahead of you.Yet most of the fuckknuckle cunts are there, belting along with their foglights on.
And yet this morning, when it was actually really bad visibility, most people didn’t put their lights on at all, let alone the foglights.
I truly do not understand people.
Getting Home – Idiot
Posted: Fri 22 February, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Stupidity Leave a comment »Getting home from the travels of the last couple of days, I discovered I’m an idiot.
Well that’s not strictly true. I’ve always known I’m an idiot. It’s a hard thing to miss, to be honest.
Anyway, the evidence in this case was as follows :
- Because I’d left at Ungodly O’Clock, I’d left one of the main lights on in the living room. Oops.
- Somehow I’d also left the kitchen window slightly unlatched
- Because of 2., the cats had shoved the window open, and had been in and out all the time I was away.
So all told, it’s been OK, and the cats have slept all evening.
But still yeah, I’m an idiot.
Wild and Free
Posted: Fri 10 August, 2012 Filed under: Animals, Stupidity, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night, Channel 4 had a documentary on the 2011 Ohio “Exotic Animal Release” called “America’s Animal Hoarder“. It’s not easy viewing, but it’s worth seeing.
It’s an amazing documentary, reflecting an episode I’d actually not heard about. Basically, Terry Thompson, a veteran of Vietnam, had amassed (legally) a collection of wild/exotic animals – Lions, jaguars, tigers, bears and more. On October 18, 2011, Thompson released his animals, and committed suicide. No-one really knows why – he’d been in jail, he was in debt, and (from the sound of the documentary) he had significant – and known – mental health issues.
In Ohio, there’s no law about the keeping of exotic/deadly animals. Thompson had also been a licensed “Class 3” firearms dealer (among other things) which allowed him to sell automatic firearms. He was a known “hoarder” – of vehicles, animals, anything.
It’s a really disturbing documentary, particularly if you happen to be an animal lover, or a fan of (particularly) big cats – and I qualify on both. They had to be shot dead – there was no other alternative, no way to tranquilise 50-60 animals and keep them safely. All the existing pens had been cut open – Thompson had cut the wire fencing, not just opened the doors.
The final toll was
- 8 tigers
- six black bears
- two grizzlies
- two wolves
- one macaque monkey
- one baboon
- three mountain lions
- nine male lions, and
- eight lionesses
You just can’t imagine having to kill that many rare animals – and knowing there’s no choice.
Really really sad – but as much of an indictment of Ohio law (and in some ways American laws in general) as of one individual with such obvious issues. Very, very sad.
Phone Insurance – Rejected
Posted: Thu 28 June, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Insurance, Stupidity 6 Comments »So, following on from yesterday’s post about the idiots at Homecare Insurance (part of CPP Insurance) it now turns out they’ve rejected my claim, because I “didn’t take reasonable precautions”.
Now, the phone is (supposedly) covered against accidental damage. But that apparently doesn’t include accidents. Of course, with insurance, the devil is in the details.
The actual circumstances of the phone’s demise are that I left it on the cistern of the toilet while I had a shower. While in the shower, I assume I received a call or a message and vibrated, because the poxy thing was in the toilet when I got out of the shower. And since then, it’s been knackered, for obvious reasons.
So apparently, I didn’t take enough care of the phone. Sure, I could have been in the bathroom, then left, put the phone somewhere else, and gone back in. I could have put the phone somewhere else in the bathroom – a windowsill, or whatever. But the fact is, I didn’t, I didn’t even think past “It’ll be fine on a flat surface”. Which it has been in the past. I didn’t think it’d fall in, because it was on a flat safe surface, not even close to the edge.
And this all means I didn’t (currently) take reasonable precautions. I freely admit to being an idiot, but the process wasn’t a careless or slapdash one – just a stupid one.
It’s being appealed, and the entire process is now also a full formal complaint.
But short story? If you’re insured with Homecare or CPP, don’t expect accidental damage to be covered, even when they say it is.
Missing the Point – Insurance
Posted: Wed 27 June, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Insurance, Stupidity, Thoughts 1 Comment »Just under two weeks ago, I buggered up my iPhone. Like an idiot, I’d laid it on the cistern of the loo while I had a shower. I assume it received a message while I was showering, vibrated, slid off the cistern, splosh.
Fortunately, the phone is/was insured, so a claim is being processed.Equally fortunately, the insurance is an added benefit to my bank account – and that’s fortunate, because if I was paying for this policy, I’d be a lot more annoyed than I currently am.
The company, Homecare insurance, are part of the CPPGroup and are – frankly – a bunch of clowns.
When I first called, their systems were unavailable. So they said they’d call me back – except they can only call me back on my registered number. Which is, of course, my mobile. Which is knackered, hence why I’m calling them. But you can’t change the number, it’s only the registered one. And when I asked to speak to a manager, they couldn’t be put through because the systems were down. (Why managers are unavailable when the system is down is something we’ll just ignore for now. I suspect it’d make my brain hurt)
So. They can send out a claim form, but you can’t email or fax it back – it’s got to be posted. And then it takes five days to process. Bearing in mind that everything in the policy says “covered against accidental damage, water damage etc.”, I don’t quite know how it takes five days to make that decision.
Anyway. I got an email from the cretins today.
“We have attempted to contact you by telephone to discuss the claim you have made on your phone insurance policy but were unsuccessful in contacting you.“
Yes, they’ve tried calling the mobile number – again – and can’t get through. Considering it’s the phone I’m claiming for, I wonder why they can’t get through?