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

TOFB said:
I learned to love New Orleans once I knew to stay the hell away from Bourbon Street and 75% of the French Quarter for that matter.
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I went to NO in 2018 for the NPC and my wife flew out at the end. We went to Bourbon Street and lasted about two blocks. We experienced it and then left. Not our cup of tea.
 
I am the lone planner in the office today, and I don't feel like doing it. Grrrrr. But I read in a book once that you can't just worry about problem staff, you gotta take care of your "super stars". So I let super star (who was supposed to be working yesterday and today) take them off to be with her husband who works shifts, and had to be gone for Christmas but was now home. Is it management.....or just more of my pathetic, life-long need to be liked? You never can tell.....
 
ursus said:
I am the lone planner in the office today, and I don't feel like doing it. Grrrrr. But I read in a book once that you can't just worry about problem staff, you gotta take care of your "super stars". So I let super star (who was supposed to be working yesterday and today) take them off to be with her husband who works shifts, and had to be gone for Christmas but was now home. Is it management.....or just more of my pathetic, life-long need to be liked? You never can tell.....
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I'm going to call you anonymously at 4:55 with a really obscure planning question.
 
Go
SlaveToTheGrind said:
I went to NO in 2018 for the NPC
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I took my wife to the 2010 NPC in NO and we went to Bourbon Street and found it... amusing... and disturbing. We were awestruck at the number of young couples pushing baby strollers past the bars and tiddie joints. (Yes, we were judgy, extremely judgy. But today, if that's the kind of vacation that makes a family happy, well, I now think that's okay, because I now understand the mental retching that goes on with them for the bougie vacation spots that we took. Full circle.)
 
Taking my car in for brake work tomorrow. It's a 5-6 hour job, so instead of sitting around the shop, I'll hop the fixed-route bus and take it down to my wife's workplace, where I will then drive her car home, where I'll de-ornament our house and put all the Christmas stuff away. Maybe do some tidying in the garage as well. Then, reverse the process after lunch and come get the car.

I make sure to always tell her I am taking her vehicle, on the very unlikely (but nonzero) chance she has to run to her car on her break and find it not there.

Plan B is I may just take an Uber directly home (opposite direction) and back to the shop. That may be better since I'm not going anywhere other than home anyway. If I had errands to run, I would need Wifey's car.

($1,000 for full brake replacement? Seems high, but that's probably about the going rate nowadays. It was about $500 for just one axle on the wife's car last year.)

Jim
 
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Been to NO 4 times. 3 for NPC and yes 2018, my last National, was the best. (Of course, I spent next to zero time in the convention center.)

The other time, just before Katrina, I was down visiting a writing friend who lived in the Quarter and thought he was the next Hemmingway. He somewhat miraculously sobered up and is now successful in writing technical manuals.
 
jumbach said:
Taking my car in for brake work tomorrow. It's a 5-6 hour job, so instead of sitting around the shop, I'll hope the fixed-route bus and take it down to my wife's workplace, where I will then drive her car home, where I'll de-ornament our house and put all the Christmas stuff away. Maybe do some tidying in the garage as well. Then, reverse the process after lunch and come get the car.

I make sure to always tell her I am taking her vehicle, on the very unlikely (but nonzero) chance she has to run to her car on her break and find it not there.

Plan B is I may just take an Uber directly home (opposite direction) and back to the shop. That may be better since I'm not going anywhere other than home anyway. If I had errands to run, I would need Wifey's car.

($1,000 for full brake replacement? Seems high, but that's probably about the going rate nowadays. It was about $500 for just one axle on the wife's car last year.)

Jim
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Brakes, if you are remotely mechanically inclined, are not a difficult job if you have the right tools. Drum brakes are not hard but take more time. I will be replacing the rear rotors and pads on my wife's Outback this weekend. Rotors were $90 each and pads were $80. For $$260 and an hour of my time, should be done. Disc are a piece of cake. Likely a video on Youtube of someone taking you step by step on your particular vehicle.
 
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My associate is at lunch right now.
His phone has rung every 3-5 minutes almost since he left.
I checked the caller id a couple times & it's the same caller.
 
On Christmas we went to my sisters house for brunch and we took a route that I hadn't taken in at least 6 months and I noticed a bunch of Korean fried chicken places had popped up in one particular area so today my oldest and I went to lunch at one of them. Delicious! I may need to test them all out!
 
Doohickie said:
Tangent: How they weld rails together using thermite:
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We live about a mile from a busy line. (CSX) They welded their rails together a few years ago. Result is no more "clickety-clack go echoing back the blues in the night".

Sound travels differently depending on the season, the time, the wind, you name it, so I still get fooled sometimes. What's that noise?
 
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SlaveToTheGrind said:
Brakes, if you are remotely mechanically inclined, are not a difficult job if you have the right tools. Drum brakes are not hard but take more time. I will be replacing the rear rotors and pads on my wife's Outback this weekend. Rotors were $90 each and pads were $80. For $$260 and an hour of my time, should be done. Disc are a piece of cake. Likely a video on Youtube of someone taking you step by step on your particular vehicle.
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I can do some minor tinkering, but when it comes to safety, I don't mess around. I'd rather let Tires Minus take care of it.

The car in question is a 2016 Hyundai Elantra. I actually took it in for a tire swap the day I took my AICP, and they told me about the brake issue (almost metal-to-metal). The was confimed independently at another shop, so I will take care of it.

Turns out that RTC dropped the fixed-route that goes by the shop and replaced it with GPDAR. My house is out of the service area, so I will need to either take GPDAR to my wife's car, or take it to another Uber/Lyft rendevous point. Or, I could walk half a mile or so to the fixed-route stop. A half-mile walk actually isn't a bad option.

I also notice there is an Enterprise Rent a Car office right across the street--$25 to rent the car for a day on a weekend. I am tempted to just do that, since that's less than rideshare round trip would be.

JIm
 
Planit said:
My associate is at lunch right now.
His phone has rung every 3-5 minutes almost since he left.
I checked the caller id a couple times & it's the same caller.
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I hate this. How hard is it to simply leave a message and wait for a call back? Nothing in planning is THAT urgent.

Jim
 
Another day, another business in my area distributing antisemitic materials and claiming they didn't know.

It's maddening that no City officials take this crap seriously.
 
The clerk at the C Store is on his phone ordering an egg McMuffin from the McD literally across the street from DoorDash. He has a case full of breakfast sandwiches that is literally 5 feet away. Probably will have a hard time making rent this month.
 
Posted about 8pm Sunday
City Hall closed Monday due to winter storm

City & County have declared a Disaster Emergency.
 
JNA said:
Posted about 8pm Sunday
City Hall closed Monday due to winter storm

City & County have declared a Disaster Emergency.
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What is it like there? Our forecast showed about an inch of snow tonight but we haven't had snow.
 
kms said:
What is it like there? Our forecast showed about an inch of snow tonight but we haven't had snow.
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1,518 outages and 46,648 total estimated electric customers without power as of Jan 6, 6:47 AM.
Travel Advisory - Warning
The highest level of local travel advisory, means that travel may be restricted to emergency management workers only. During a "warning" local travel advisory, individuals are directed to
  • Refrain from all travel;
  • Comply with necessary emergency measures;
  • Cooperate with public officials and disaster services forces in executing emergency operations plans; and
  • Obey and comply with the lawful directions of properly identified officers.
 
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TOFB said:
The clerk at the C Store is on his phone ordering an egg McMuffin from the McD literally across the street from DoorDash. He has a case full of breakfast sandwiches that is literally 5 feet away. Probably will have a hard time making rent this month.
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Surprised DoorDash didn’t suspend operations.
 
A couple of places that used to do delivery in-house, especially when COVID first hit are now using DoorDash - it's so expensive so I don't get stuff from them anymore, so there!
 
It is a point of pride for me that I've never used Door Dash or Uber Eats or the like. I have no problem spending money but not on things that I can do myself. Turning a 5 dollar hamburger into a 10 dollar hamburger is not on my list of how to grow my nest egg.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
I went to NO in 2018 for the NPC and my wife flew out at the end. We went to Bourbon Street and lasted about two blocks. We experienced it and then left. Not our cup of tea.
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I confirmed with my sister that they will watch the boys at the end of September, so now I am looking for recommendations. We like to stay in old historic hotels, eat good food, and will likely head down to Bourbon Street a couple of times. But since we are morning people, I don't think we will be out late.
 
MD Planner said:
It is a point of pride for me that I've never used Door Dash or Uber Eats or the like. I have no problem spending money but not on things that I can do myself. Turning a 5 dollar hamburger into a 10 dollar hamburger is not on my list of how to grow my nest egg.
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Same here. I've never used a food delivery service. If I can't buy food at the restaurant I can cook something at home.
 
This storm.

I only shop when I'm going to cook. I thought I'd make red beans today. The panic shoppers were in full force yesterday. I didn't make it past the front end of Walmart. People were lined up into the aisles. The local grocery wasn't as crowded. The current panic shopping items seem to be chicken broth and dried beans and none were left for me.

Around here, the roads are clear enough to drive a few hours after a snow. But people still panic.
 
Its full on bird feeder season here. Once the snow was on the ground and it reached about 18 F yesterday. Suet attracts Downey Woodpeckers and nuthatches and sometimes Red Bellied Woodpeckers. The seed gets sparrows, juncos, cardinals, chickadees, finches and Blue Jays, who eat if off the ground and scare the other birds off. I have a squirrel corn feeder and several of the birds like the discarded bits the squirrels leave.

Exciting stuff when you are trapped inside.
 
Surprised at how quickly my wife's W-2 arrived in her payroll program her employer uses. She said it's there this morning. We don't usually get ours at the city until mid-January, at the earliest, and I don't even bother to work on our taxes until around March, if then. Ours are complicated, with regular jobs, my 1099 income, medical expenses, dividends, HSA, mortgage/house, home office, business use of vehicle, out-of-state income, etc.

While I admire those people that love to get it done early, and I usually am one of those people with most things, with taxes it's the opposite. like to take time and get it right, running the numbers three times over the span of three "focus weekends." I figure if I fill out the form three times and it's the same all three times, I did it correctly. Then I wait until the 13th or 14th of April and look over it one more time just to be sure, then, into the mail it goes. And I almost always hit my target of $0 on the bottom line, nothing owed, nothing due back. I am in the -$100<x<$100 range about 8 years out of ten.

(I do it by hand with paper forms and mail--it's worked for me that way for 30 years, so why change? And we've never been audited . . .)

Jim
 
MD Planner said:
It is a point of pride for me that I've never used Door Dash or Uber Eats or the like. I have no problem spending money but not on things that I can do myself. Turning a 5 dollar hamburger into a 10 dollar hamburger is not on my list of how to grow my nest egg.
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I've used these services only when gifted a gift card to do so while recovering from surgery. Hubby can do very basic stuff only, and even he can not live on pizza alone.

But if I'm capable of either cooking or driving, I do so and avoid the ubereats/doordash fees.
 
kms said:
Same here. I've never used a food delivery service. If I can't buy food at the restaurant I can cook something at home.
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When my father was ill and I didn't want to leave his side, nor did I feel like cooking, DoorDash was a Godsend!!

Jim
 
luckless pedestrian said:
A couple of places that used to do delivery in-house, especially when COVID first hit are now using DoorDash - it's so expensive so I don't get stuff from them anymore, so there!
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A few of the pizza places here have their own drivers, but when it gets busy, they send the overflow orders out to DD or the like.
 
Still waiting to hear if we get Thursday off. Per our Union contract we are supposed to get any Presidentally-declared day of mourning off, but it's not a city holiday, so I may have to work.

Makes no difference to me either way, but it would be nice to know for planning purposes.

Jim
 
MD Planner said:
It is a point of pride for me that I've never used Door Dash or Uber Eats or the like. I have no problem spending money but not on things that I can do myself. Turning a 5 dollar hamburger into a 10 dollar hamburger is not on my list of how to grow my nest egg.
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Ditto.

I've also never used Uber or Lyft... but that's more so because I just don't go anywhere and also rarely ever need a taxi. Usually If I am traveling by myself I figure out how to use whatever local transit there is or just walk and if I am with my family we usually have a rental car.
 
MD Planner said:
It is a point of pride for me that I've never used Door Dash or Uber Eats or the like. I have no problem spending money but not on things that I can do myself. Turning a 5 dollar hamburger into a 10 dollar hamburger is not on my list of how to grow my nest egg.
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I got an Uber Eats gift card for Christmas, guess I'll have to find something to use it on. Not exactly sure how much it adds to the cost of a menu item.
 
I took our youngest to the library yesterday afternoon and was able to find a parking spot on the street nearly right in front of the main entrance. It was a tight squeeze to parallel park into but I did it in my Gladiator with ease. My 8-year-old was wholly unimpressed. :disappointed"
 
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