Recent submissions

Comment · 6 years ago
We had a dishwasher with auto-dispense where you pour the whole bottle of detergent into a reservoir and it would automatically dispense what was needed.

Well one day it was getting low I poured a new bottle in and all the dishes weren't getting washed. I called the detergent company to report a defective bottle, but turns out there was some sort of formula change due to a new regulation. Apparently mixing the two together in the auto-dispenser causes them to harden and clog the dispenser. So I tried just pouring it into the manual dispenser, slightly better but the dishes weren't really clean. I called my dishwasher repairman who just told me to buy Finish tabs and we would be fine.

My mother called me weeks later saying that six of her tenants complained that their dishwasher was broken and she had already replaced one (two of the dishwashers were less than two years old). I told her to just gift them all a tub of tabs from Costco which worked.

Comment · 6 years ago
True, though tenants in corporate owned single family housing all tell me it's closer towards the worst landlords. The corporations won't harass you, but they essentially don't want to do anything. You just get an expensive "as-is" house, which can be okay if it's in decent shape.
Comment · 6 years ago
I've been sick for almost ten years and had low vitamin D levels. Last two years I've finally found some treatments that work for me, now that I'm healthier my vitamin D level has gone up to about 40 even though I rarely go outside and don't supplement. It's typically 5 without supplementation.

Previously, I tried supplementing with 10,000IU daily, didn't help me feel any better and took a long time to get my levels up. Doctor even told me to lie outside in a bikini every day in the sun and not to burn myself. My doc's theory is that some process in sick people uses up their vitamin D and calcium, and that's what needs to be stopped. He says he has seen patients with Vitamin D deficiency where they are cured with supplementation and/or sun, but it's not very common. It's cheap, easy, and harmless enough though to try before moving on to other things.

Comment · 6 years ago
Comment · 6 years ago
A sizable portion of the car washes in Los Angeles have an aggressive chip repair salesman who will circle all the chips and aggressively try to sell you on free windshield repair. Guy was always confused and upset about why I wouldn't want to buy something that was free.

Finally one day my windshield had enough chips to be replaced. Guy sees me pulling out my insurance card and goes "Mercury? They don't cover anything!" so now when the guy starts walking over I say "I'm with Mercury" and he immediately moves on.

Comment · 6 years ago
I do this on high value items. I pack the item in the car though for safety and film continuously until drop-off.
Comment · 6 years ago
They have rental scams here where they will show you the house as well. One is where they pretend to be realtors and get the key from the listing agent.
Comment · 6 years ago
Hospitals will pay their own money for residencies in specialties that are wildly profitable. Usually, some fancy types of surgeons. Primary care, endocrinology, rheumatology, and a lot of other needed specialists are not so the limited slots are whatever the government will pay for.
Comment · 6 years ago
On the zero bezel phones the software makes a huge difference. I have very small hands where I can barely grip friends' XL phones. If they have some cheap off-brand, discount prepaid or even fancy Chinese Android I am constantly activating it despite barely touching the edges, whereas I never have the problem on the Google Pixel or an iPhone.
Comment · 6 years ago
I’m in the same boat as you. My PT has helped a lot. I discovered many of the treatments were in the book The Perrin Technique. The symptoms in the book described me exactly.

I gave her a copy to read and it has helped greatly. My PT told another one of her patients with similar symptoms who has gone from mostly bed/housebound to regular outings.

Comment · 6 years ago
Older people have had more practice operating the TV. Just getting the phone to work is often a mental challenge.

A ton of them are constantly inadvertently opening control center and then accidentally turning it on airplane mode or whatever. Another issue is that software changes constantly and any slight interface change they have no clue what to do.

Comment · 6 years ago
I know a ton of these older adults. I think the true problem is that they are not socializing enough which is the cause of the mental decline and often paranoia.

Some of them have moved somewhere cheaper to retire where they don’t have many friends, but most of the ones I know just watch tv instead of calling a friend to do something. The friend is the same even though they would love to hang out. I’ve tried nudging them with no success.

Comment · 6 years ago
Active management is expensive. I've seen it for $1800/yr and the rate of followup was still poor. If you want a doctor to take care of you like family the rate seems to be $7500-30000 annually depending on what's wrong with you. Seems like it might be cheaper to hire a healthcare advocate though most of them are more about geriatric and end of life care.
Comment · 6 years ago
Depends on the insurance company's contract with the provider. It is generally optional, though they will tell you otherwise. I would still pay it though. I feel like it is a good value and I want to maintain a good relationship the the doctor and their office.
Comment · 6 years ago
An electric bike is too heavy and bulky, there's nowhere to store it in the house. Also a pain to store in the office which is upstairs. We can't leave it outside due to the homeless, they'll steal or vandalize or defecate on it.

There's a bunch of reasons, but mostly he just really hates walking. It's boring, too slow and too hot outside much of the year which causes the whole sweatiness problem.

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