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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

michaelskis said:
Past couple of months have been wet for us...
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Season 3 Nbc GIF by The Office
 
Schools in my fair county are already out for summer. They go back the 1st week of August.
 
I have a couple of friends who leave gifts on my porch. That's a good and generous thing.

Last evening, someone left grocery bags containing two watermelon wedges and blueberries. I don't know who left them. It could be a misdirected grocery delivery, but i didn't see a receipt. I can't consume food that's dropped on my porch without explanation. My refrigerator is full and I can't store those things. It's a shame that I'll just toss them over the fence for wildlife.
 
jumbach said:
We are going to a Banana Ball game on Thursday. Has anyone been to one? Is it as fun as it appears to be on TV?
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It's probably worth the experience. Once. The Bananas are in my back yard and I preferred it better when it was smaller and they actually played real baseball at Grayson Stadium with some fun thrown in. Now it's essentially the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.
 
Even though I am retired, on my greenway walk on one of the levee cross overs I took this photo.

Would that junk pile be a violation in your fair community ?
violation pic.jpg
 
JNA said:
Even though I am retired, on my greenway walk on one of the levee cross overs I took this photo.

Would that junk pile be a violation in your fair community ?
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Can't see up close, so maybe not everything there would be in violation but likely most of it would be.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Paging @ursus . Where be you?
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You cannot understand the depths to which I sank while I could not stroll the streets of Cyburbia in my sweater boots. I am now (metaphorically, people) rolling naked on the wide, grassy park strips of your streets, Cyburbia - where there are no public hearings, only public huggings. It's good to touch the green, green grass if home.
 
jumbach said:
We are going to a Banana Ball game on Thursday. Has anyone been to one? Is it as fun as it appears to be on TV?
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I went earlier this year when they played in Atlanta. It was fun and very expensive. Some of the stuff is very impressive, but it's not baseball. I think once is enough for me. The rest of my family is already planning a follow up game.

I did see a proposal two rows down during the last inning. She said yes, but thought about it a little too much. I wonder if she didn't want to get proposed to at a fake baseball game.
 
MD Planner said:
It's probably worth the experience. Once. The Bananas are in my back yard and I preferred it better when it was smaller and they actually played real baseball at Grayson Stadium with some fun thrown in. Now it's essentially the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.
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Yeah, I'm not going to bother bringing my scorecard. I'm going to think of it more as a baseball-themed circus.

With that said, my understanding is that the games themselves are not "rigged" a certain way and they don't have a set outcome at the beginning.

I must say I do rather like the scoring system--keeps it interesting. I liken it to match play in golf. I don't see the "sprint" vs. walk taking off, though.

Speaking of scorecards: I seldom see anyone else with a scorecard at the 10 or so AAA games I go to each year. I think that's a lost art. It's really not as hard as it seems.

Jim
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
I went earlier this year when they played in Atlanta. It was fun and very expensive. Some of the stuff is very impressive, but it's not baseball. I think once is enough for me. The rest of my family is already planning a follow up game.

I did see a proposal two rows down during the last inning. She said yes, but thought about it a little too much. I wonder if she didn't want to get proposed to at a fake baseball game.
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For my wife and me, it was different. We went from best friends to engaged so suddenly and unexpectedly. We were driving to an amusement park, and we decided maybe we should get married. I guess that was it. A year later, we were.

That same day of de facto engagement, by the way, we got stuck on a roller coaster.

Jim
 
I love answering questions about what permits you have open that will get hit with the new higher fees if you don't pull them now. Stop questioning, just pull the permit already.
 
ursus said:
You cannot understand the depths to which I sank while I could not stroll the streets of Cyburbia in my sweater boots. I am now (metaphorically, people) rolling naked on the wide, grassy park strips of your streets, Cyburbia - where there are no public hearings, only public huggings. It's good to touch the green, green grass if home.
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Things are always more hopeful when @ursus comes around... so, how goes it? Keeping the bad guys at bay?
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Things are always more hopeful when @ursus comes around... so, how goes it? Keeping the bad guys at bay?
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I assume the bad guys are always at bay somewhere, or they have disguised themselves - probably as attractive wait-staff at fast-casual dining establishments. That'd be the way to get information out of me, I'm just being honest. :) How the heck are you!? And everybody else, frankly! I hate being away.
 
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^^^ AIB

Why Doris Kearns Goodwin Says Baseball Made Her A Better Historian
KG: So, what is your first memory of baseball?
DKG: My first memory, really, is when I was 6 years old. And my father gave me this bright red scorebook, and he taught me the art of keeping score. I learned about a K, or a check, or getting the players around the bases. And it just made me feel like I was learning the game in a new way. And, mostly, I was learning from my father.
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ursus said:
I assume the bad guys are always at bay somewhere, or they have disguised themselves - probably as attractive wait-staff at fast-casual dining establishments. That'd be the way to get information out of me, I'm just being honest. :) How the heck are you!? And everybody else, frankly! I hate being away.
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You got my message? You're back so I assume so.
 
Maister said:
You got my message? You're back so I assume so.
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I'm back, but I didn't get a message - not in any traditional way. But I was up late last night, monitoring the secret frequencies and I heard you saying "There are still chairs, even when the forest is dark..." over and over, and yeah man, I got your message. :)

Seriously though, I didn't get a message. I'm not doing LinkedIn or most social media anymore. I just kept trying to log on without my computers denying me until it worked. Worked once a while ago and then kicked me out again. I was growing despondent. I am now whole again! You'll have to ban me if you want to be rid of me! Don't get any ideas.....
 
The trouble started in the summer of '25. The morning was wet: Filth in the streets running on the asphalt, lightning flashing like God had to get a picture. I walked City Hall in the darkness, practicing a line I'd cooked up as the storm blew in. The engineer I'd have to meet was coming, that much was sure. He'd have to hear it. I'd let him say his piece, get good and comfortable, then drop it on him. The PD was no good.
When you've got to deliver news like that, you've gotta wait until just the right moment. Their hands relax, they breathe a little deeper, that little pencil sketch of their best laid plans lays on the desk. You cover it up, send a message: The fee sheet goes right over the mixed-use town center, a fig leaf for the missing sidewalks. "It'll be difficult," you say confidentially, lean in easy, "The Council's seen it all before, right? And the Mayor, the Mayor thinks you don't have the juice." Of course, that's not the issue, that's never the issue - proposals that make this apartment-laundromat abomination look like the new utopia fly through without a second look. They see that omission glowing like the lone streetlight in their client's aborted subdivision. So then you give it to 'em. When the need to know chokes out the procedural light in their eyes, then you tell them: "Listen, it's not up to me, not up to Council - it's out of our hands. Old John's gonna hear about this the second you pay the fee, and buddy, John Q. Public doesn't do reimbursements."
I let them tuck those sheets away in the dark briefcases, give 'em the fee sheet again: "Just in case you still wanna go through with this," I say. They don't know whether I'm gonna help or not, and frankly neither do I. Not my call. I light up, soft music of liquid gold in a tumbler. Outside, the rain's finished hammering the grey world and a fog hangs over the brownfield stretching to the dark horizon. "Not my call," I say, this is a public profession, and in this town the public is engaged.

1748432028577.png
 
joscoffee said:
The trouble started in the summer of '25. The morning was wet: Filth in the streets running on the asphalt, lightning flashing like God had to get a picture. I walked City Hall in the darkness, practicing a line I'd cooked up as the storm blew in. The engineer I'd have to meet was coming, that much was sure. He'd have to hear it. I'd let him say his piece, get good and comfortable, then drop it on him. The PD was no good.
When you've got to deliver news like that, you've gotta wait until just the right moment. Their hands relax, they breathe a little deeper, that little pencil sketch of their best laid plans lays on the desk. You cover it up, send a message: The fee sheet goes right over the mixed-use town center, a fig leaf for the missing sidewalks. "It'll be difficult," you say confidentially, lean in easy, "The Council's seen it all before, right? And the Mayor, the Mayor thinks you don't have the juice." Of course, that's not the issue, that's never the issue - proposals that make this apartment-laundromat abomination look like the new utopia fly through without a second look. They see that omission glowing like the lone streetlight in their client's aborted subdivision. So then you give it to 'em. When the need to know chokes out the procedural light in their eyes, then you tell them: "Listen, it's not up to me, not up to Council - it's out of our hands. Old John's gonna hear about this the second you pay the fee, and buddy, John Q. Public doesn't do reimbursements."
I let them tuck those sheets away in the dark briefcases, give 'em the fee sheet again: "Just in case you still wanna go through with this," I say. They don't know whether I'm gonna help or not, and frankly neither do I. Not my call. I light up, soft music of liquid gold in a tumbler. Outside, the rain's finished hammering the grey world and a fog hangs over the brownfield stretching to the dark horizon. "Not my call," I say, this is a public profession, and in this town the public is engaged.

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Needs a soundtrack. Here you go:

 
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I would add, conditionally, that this appears to be the case. Unless there are other factors remaining unaccounted for. So, definitely a strong maybe on that.
 
I attempted to log in this morning on my cell phone and it said that it could not find the site. Did anyone else have any issues?
 
woo boy - my daughter is visiting and I had a negroni with her last night, and I slept horribly and have a hangover - I hate getting older
 
I need to adjust my social media habits. On my professional FB account I used to get videos of Brad Mondie critiquing people's haircuts and dye jobs. Now it is all Auschwitz victims. :cry::cry::cry::cry:

And on Reddit I mostly am seeing skeletons of various animals on from the bone collecting subreddit.
 
dandy_warhol said:
I need to adjust my social media habits. On my professional FB account I used to get videos of Brad Mondie critiquing people's haircuts and dye jobs. Now it is all Auschwitz victims. :cry::cry::cry::cry:

And on Reddit I mostly am seeing skeletons of various animals on from the bone collecting subreddit.
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yeah, your algorithm is all messed up
 
kms said:
I have a couple of friends who leave gifts on my porch. That's a good and generous thing.

Last evening, someone left grocery bags containing two watermelon wedges and blueberries. I don't know who left them. It could be a misdirected grocery delivery, but i didn't see a receipt. I can't consume food that's dropped on my porch without explanation. My refrigerator is full and I can't store those things. It's a shame that I'll just toss them over the fence for wildlife.
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What about August 8th?

1748455035831.png
 
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