Shopping Thread .. or What Did You Buy?

[Cutlass]

I realize that they are made by a bunch of different manufacturers, but I've had a lot of Kenmore appliances, and they have typically lasted a very long time before breaking down. Just replaced a dishwasher that was around 25 years old.

As to clothes lines, I have one in the back yard. But it doesn't get a lot of use, except to hold the bird welfare stations. I also have ones attached to the furnace in the basement. They get more use. No blown sand problem, and it's the driest room in the house. Mostly used to dry stuff that got rained on while I was wearing it.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I drew the "wrong end of the desert" straw.

At the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains there's what are called the "transverse ranges." The Mojave desert is shaped like an arrowhead and the point is wedged in between these ranges, and I live in that point. The sun hits the Mojave and heat makes air rise, and that rising air over the entire gigantic pan from here to Vegas and Phoenix has to be replaced with air drawn through the channel between the Tehachapis and the San Gabriels. "Thoughtfully placed for less wind" starts about twenty miles from here. On the plus side I could probably send you a post card by tying it to a balloon.

Spring is our windy season and on windy days, it can blow. Unbuffered houses get sandblasted on the west sides. Our clothesline is somewhat protected by a wall and trees to the west. Yes, your desert is not our desert.

Spoiler :

Ours is nicer

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Yeah...whenever someone says "we have to save our desert ecosystems!" I always pause and think "they might be from New Mexico or something, keep calm" before I let "why?" slip out of my mouth.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yeah...whenever someone says "we have to save our desert ecosystems!" I always pause and think "they might be from New Mexico or something, keep calm" before I let "why?" slip out of my mouth.

If you don't preserve the desert, the worms will die and there won't be any more spice. Without spice, there can't be any interplanetary space travel and the Imperial economy would grind to a halt.*

*as happened in God Emperor of Dune.

 

[Berzerker]

I drew the "wrong end of the desert" straw.

At the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains there's what are called the "transverse ranges." The Mojave desert is shaped like an arrowhead and the point is wedged in between these ranges, and I live in that point. The sun hits the Mojave and heat makes air rise, and that rising air over the entire gigantic pan from here to Vegas and Phoenix has to be replaced with air drawn through the channel between the Tehachapis and the San Gabriels. "Thoughtfully placed for less wind" starts about twenty miles from here. On the plus side I could probably send you a post card by tying it to a balloon.

aren't you in the path of the Santa Ana's too?

they used to land the shuttle where you're at

 

[Timsup2nothin]

aren't you in the path of the Santa Ana's too?

they used to land the shuttle where you're at

Yeah the Santa Ana's come through here too. More like from here. When there's high pressure over the desert it shoots air through the canyons in the San Gabriels down into LA and offshore. One of the biggest canyons is the Soledad/Escondido pass, which is where the road connecting me to LA runs through.

We built the shuttle. It landed a lot at Edwards, which is forty miles away, but they were built in Palmdale. The hanger is maybe five miles from where I'm sitting right now. Probably less.

 

[Berzerker]

We are still using our Kenmore and Maytag oldie but goodies for everything except the clothes washer. That Kenmore (Sears) broke last? year after 25 years. We bought a top loading Speedqueen and it looks to be just as good.

yup, we bought a speed queen a few years back...they sold us on their metal gearing instead of plastic...and I think it was made in USA but cant remember for sure

His friends have one that's not even six months old, also has problems, and when they and my kid were talking to an appliance guy they all play darts with he told them "yeah, the ice makers freeze up...known Samsung problem...if yours has the problem if you don't take a hairdryer and de-ice the works of the icemaker every three months or so it's never gonna work right and it will just burn out." Guy says that he puts new icemakers in the things pretty much constantly and has started telling people he won't do it because they just break after a few months anyway because whatever the problem is the source isn't the icemaker that's just what breaks.

Bummer, hopefully thats just on new models with similar ice makers and they'll fix the problem. Ours froze up and I had to carefully take a heat gun to it, but thats once in over 30 years and it hasn't done it again since. Its a Kitchen Aid freezer and Whirlpool frig. The frig was leaking water but I found out it was just a clogged line leading to a defrosting reservoir and it was fine after unclogging.

 

[dusters]

Bought presents for my soon to be wife.

 

[tetley]

I bought the Age of Wonders 3 expansion, on Steam. Now I don't care if I'm confined, I don't care if there's a sun in the sky, I even forgot to eat lunch yesterday.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Bummer, hopefully thats just on new models with similar ice makers and they'll fix the problem. Ours froze up and I had to carefully take a heat gun to it, but thats once in over 30 years and it hasn't done it again since. Its a Kitchen Aid freezer and Whirlpool frig. The frig was leaking water but I found out it was just a clogged line leading to a defrosting reservoir and it was fine after unclogging.

It is a problem with their most recent design, apparently, and has something to do with (guessing) internal circulation since the guy says replacing the ice maker after it breaks just leads to another broken ice maker unless the intermittent de-icing gets done. The way the ice builds up if the icemaker tries to keep running it breaks something inside. At a guess Samsung will be all over identifying the problem because another generation of refrigerators feeding them a stream of warranty claims for ice makers is obviously not what they are looking for. What that will mean for recent purchasers is open to question though.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Before things got super crazy I ordered some disposable face masks on Amazon. They took a month to 'arrive' but they never actually showed up. It could be that I have a porch pirate but I doubt this very much. They were never going to arrive but they took my money anyways.

I can't even find the option to tell Amazon it never came and give me my money back. FFS I just had to google it and it's a hidden, multi-step process and I have to wait 36 hours before even starting it.

 

[amadeus]

I got some beers from the vending machine.

To answer a few unasked questions:

No, there is no age verification.

No, you should not immediately open the beer after it falls against the hard metal base of the vending machine.

No, the price is not much worse than going to the store.

Yes, I’m very happy to have a beer vending machine in my vicinity.

 

[cardgame]

Before things got super crazy I ordered some disposable face masks on Amazon. They took a month to 'arrive' but they never actually showed up. It could be that I have a porch pirate but I doubt this very much. They were never going to arrive but they took my money anyways.

I can't even find the option to tell Amazon it never came and give me my money back. FFS I just had to google it and it's a hidden, multi-step process and I have to wait 36 hours before even starting it.

Something I ordered ended up halfway across the country in Virginia, with a 'delivered' checkmark with a specific address and everything. Not my address though... Fortunately no trouble with refunding that one.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I bought some wood Sunday to attempt building an indoor play structure. We'll see how it goes.

 

[amadeus]

I misread the “oo” in “wood” as “ee,” but the meaning of the sentence changed very little.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Before things got super crazy I ordered some disposable face masks on Amazon. They took a month to 'arrive' but they never actually showed up. It could be that I have a porch pirate but I doubt this very much. They were never going to arrive but they took my money anyways.

I can't even find the option to tell Amazon it never came and give me my money back. FFS I just had to google it and it's a hidden, multi-step process and I have to wait 36 hours before even starting it.

We looked at Amazon for masks and all the vendors looked like scammers. They all seemed to be Chinese sellers claiming US locations. Just so you know, Chinese companies are not allowed to sell masks outside of China unless they are government owned.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

We looked at Amazon for masks and all the vendors looked like scammers. They all seemed to be Chinese sellers claiming US locations. Just so you know, Chinese companies are not allowed to sell masks outside of China unless they are government owned.

I ordered before all that nonsense started. I went on recently to try and preemptively re-up my order and saw what you're talking about, but it wasn't really a problem when I ordered.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I ordered before all that nonsense started. I went on recently to try and preemptively re-up my order and saw what you're talking about, but it wasn't really a problem when I ordered.

There are YouTube videos for making your own from cloth (I was told that you have to wash them in hot water and soap to clean them), and there are vendors on Etsy selling masks (the U.S. based sellers are likely cheaper than the Canadian-based ones). The Etsy sellers, like the Amazon Marketplace sellers, are usually highly motivated to receive 5-star ratings from customers.

I'd love to report the price gouging I saw on Amazon.ca for Tylenol, but there doesn't seem to be a way. Their customer service chat line is worthless at the best of times.

That said, I did manage some acetaminophen from the grocery store. It's not exactly what I normally use, but close enough.

 

[Cutlass]

I ordered before all that nonsense started. I went on recently to try and preemptively re-up my order and saw what you're talking about, but it wasn't really a problem when I ordered.

There's a store here giving away face mask material for free. Some assembly required. Want some?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There's a store here giving away face mask material for free. Some assembly required. Want some?

No thanks, I've got some t-shirts I'm going to cut up!