If You're Gonna Be Dumb You Gotta Be Tough Example The Umpteenth

This heartwarming story of how a supposed GPS navigation error is leading an illegal to be deported is a lovely example of how if you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough.

MILive: Mother of 2 takes wrong turn into Canada, now faces deportation from U.S.

A mother of two is facing deportation after a wrong turn that took her into Canada, FOX 2 Detroit reports. 

The Guatemalan woman accidentally ended up in Canada when she selected the Costco in Windsor (rather than Detroit) in her GPS, Attorney Ruby Robinson told the TV station, identifying his client only a “Sarahi.” She crossed the Ambassador Bridge. When she attempted to reenter the United States via the bridge, she was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Sarahi” entered the United States illegally in 2018

The story is a bit suspect as there are no Costcos in Detroit at all. So you would think she would have figured that part out on the way at some point. 

On top of that, every single highway leading to the Canadian border has a sign with the words "Last Exit Before Canada".

If you've been illegally in the country for the last 7 years and still you can't read enough English to understand you should exit when seeing that sign because you're an illegal and you don't want to get checked at the border, well, then it is on you. 

This sign is only in English because:

"Esta es la última salida antes de Canadá, así que date la vuelta, es ilegal antes de que te atrapen, Pendejo!"

Is just too much to put on a sign by the border, really.

Interlude: Coscto Corona Capping Capacity

So Costco today.

Wearing a mask was mandatory, but hardly a big deal.

The good news: mirabile dictu they had toilet paper. Yep, a badly needed package of 30 jumbo rolls made it into the cart for urgent home resupply. Much rejoicing.

The bad news: Yes the meat shortage is indeed a real thing due to the shutdown. Fresh meat purchases are being limited to three meat items per customer.

The excellent news: Scored a bottle of Four Roses small batch bourbon for under $40.

The hilarious news: Wearing a mask when the cashier was asked if he wants to see ID for the aforementioned bourbon -- The response: "Heck, at this point with the way things are, if you want to drink, drink.".
Brightened my day, it did.

Coronavirus: Costco Content Report

Driving by Costco yesterday it was a complete zoo.

Today, we had an appointment at their tire center as one of Tash's tires wasn't holding pressure.

On a very positive note, Costco really stands by their tire sales and fixed the problem no fuss, no muss, and no charge. I do recommend them if you're buying a set of tires, prices are good and they do stand by their warranty.

We had time to wait while they worked on the car, so we did a bit of shopping and picked up some staples and extras.

It seems the panic buying has ebbed by a lot as it really wasn't busy at all at 4pm. If anything it was less packed than a typical Saturday.

While there was no rice, nor interestingly any eggs today, nor the elusive TP, and very little bread, there was still lots of food there of all sorts. I think everyone had been panic shopped out.

Most other staples are still there, just clearly lower in quantity than before, but still available. Plenty of foodstuffs and other necessities. For example, the stack of breakfast cereal boxes that usually reach up to head-height were now at waist level, but tons were still available.

So either the panic buying is ebbing as people have already gotten enough to the point they believe they can get themselves through, or its the calm before the storm.

Customers were all well behaved, everybody calm, no one running around like a chicken with their head cut off, and there were rotisserie chickens to be had.

Again, there was very good hygiene on Costco employees' part with gloves on at the door, and wiping down cart handles.

Overall it looks like panic is subsiding, at least for now, and that's a good thing.

I hear, however, that Costco going to subdivide the 24 bottles of Corona into sixpacks, as no one want to pickup a case of Corona right now.

Costco Covid Report - TP Panic Persists

So this morning I stopped by Costco for gas and some staples.

It was about the busiest I've seen it at 10 am when they open - very long lines.

A lot of people buying a lot of bottled water and large quantities of stuff.

Worryingly, there was no rice to be found at all, which was darn strange.

Other staples were there and in plenty except for one basic item:

Yes toilet paper is still out of stock and the shelves are bare.

Methinks the TP hoarders are getting this particular disaster preparation wrong, and like tulip bulb buyers are fixedly going after the wrong item.

After all, its really the wrong item to lose your S#!t over. If you catch Covid19, the virus may just make you feel like S#!t, but it doesn't make you explosively have to S#!t.

Settle down people, this is not worth panicking over.

Well That Tire Sure Was Screwed

Picking Abby up from an activity yesterday after work. I park and go get her, we walk back to the car and she tells me the back passenger tire is hissing.

Sure enough there's a very audible hiss coming from the tire.

Ruh Roh.

So it's 8.6 miles to the nearest tire place on a rapidly leaking tire.
In the rain.
In rush hour.
And we're wearing sunglasses.

Hit it.

Sure enough, almost immediately after we start moving, the tire pressure light comes on, telling me what I already know. Great.

So we call ahead and zip through late rush hour traffic, including people that can't drive because it's raining, and make it over to Costco and manage to make it to the tire center while its still open on one very soft tire.

An hour and a half later, after having a bite at Costco and doing some needed shopping, the tire is perfectly patched, refilled, and a very long screw is removed from it and the other tires are all checked and topped off.

All covered by Costco's tire warranty and service policy, which is amazing considering it's not the tire's fault, and we're good to go.

hard drive declares goodbye to all that

The home notebook's hard drive has stuck its middle platten to the world and has declared no mas.

I had it reformatted and a chkdsk revealed bad clusters. I shut it down and it will come up no more.only a blinking cursor. Bios test of the hard drive fails every time. .

It is one dead hard drive.

However, it failed with 2 more months left on the warranty and Costco is going to have me ship it out for service. Hooray for extended warranties.

Blogging this weekend will be light as the Blackberry is no replacement for a full notebook with picture upload capability.

If you can't add Gas to your car, maybe you shouldn't be driving

So yesterday I'm on my way home in a bit of a rush and realize I need to fuel up my car. No problem, I'm making good time, I'll just pop by Costco on the way home and fill up there as their gas tends to be cheaper.

I get there and there's a problem.

They have one lane completely closed with a trailer there doing something that looks like sewer cleaning.

Other lanes are also partially blocked with some pumps closed.

So I get directed into a line at a lane that has one pump open, with the nozzle on the opposite side from my gas tank (the Costco pump hoses are long, on bungee-like supports that can easily reach around your car so it doesn't matter what lane you get into - pretty efficient right?).

In front of me the car at the pump leaves and the car immediately ahead pulls up to the pump, this should be quick, its a Chrysler 300M and adding gasoline to it is a pretty easy process.

In a few words: for some, not so much.

Out get this middle aged lady (ie its not a teen with her first car and not an elderly person with early onset alzheimers - then again as you'll see maybe its extra-early onset alzheimers after all). She goes up to the pump and stares at it for a while, then fishes in her purse, gets out her card and starts to do something, presses a few buttons and seems to try again.

She then does it again, takes the hose out, looks for her gas tank (on the opposite side from the pump) and proceeds to stick the handle into the tank upside down (trigger an handle on top). This should be good.

Of course it doesn't work as the auto shut off triggers as the handle is upside down! She doesn't seem to understand.

While this is entertaining, people behind me in other lines are now done already and I'm stuck behind this bozo and pined in place with another car firmly attached to my rear bumper.

She goes back to the pump and stares.

Finally a Costco attendant comes by, hits the buttond, and then fills the gas for her, then stops, and then she puts her card in again and he continues to fill. WTF?

Eventually it is done. She now has to navigate the dreaded orange cone blocking the closed off pump in front of her. This takes a while. Finally she's gone. To put it in perspective and a rough estimate of time, I've now listened to three songs waiting for this moron to figure out how to put gas in a car.

I pull up, already with my card in hand as I've had PLENTY of time waiting. Get the process started, drag the hose over the Jeep and start filling in oh 5 seconds.

The Costco guy passes by and I ask what was the difficulty the lady was having.

Well he says first, she wanted midgrade gas (Costco only has 87 and 93 and skips the midgrade) for her car and she couldn't figure out where the button for midgrade was. Then when she realized there was no button she couldn't figure it out how to do it.

Here's a clue -- Fill half your tank with 93, the other half with 87 and voila, you have midgrade at actually a cheaper price than midgrade is typically sold for.

Here's another clue - when there's a long line line behind you have some courtesy and common sense and chose one, do not stop, do not pass go, do not stand there all slack jawed all day, just put one fuel in. If you're really concerned put in the premium, but the 300M will run on 87.

The final clue - put the handle in facing down, it works so much better then, really.

Some people probably shouldn't be allowed out in public by themselves, much less behind the wheel of a car.