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RTDNTOTO šŸ» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

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Hey you know that Appalachian thing where if you hear your name called out in the woods, well, no, you didn't -

when I was on my bike ride, I was alone for a little bit in the woods outside of Swanton (which makes this completely believable), and yeah, I heard my name coming from the woods, and it was NOT my friends messing with me - I pedaled a little faster along - wth

Also, at a different location, farmland, there was a group of people standing by the side looking at something and I assumed it was a moose or a bear - it was a bear and her three cubs, I glanced over and thought "I have seen the Instagram reels about bears" and kept going - don't mess with a mama bear and her cubs - my friend stayed and took pictures but she high tailed it out of there when the bear looked back at the onlookers - yikes, nope

also note to @TOFB I was pedaling when you sent your message so I owe you a call
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Hey you know that Appalachian thing where if you hear your name called out in the woods, well, no, you didn't -

when I was on my bike ride, I was alone for a little bit in the woods outside of Swanton (which makes this completely believable), and yeah, I heard my name coming from the woods, and it was NOT my friends messing with me - I pedaled a little faster along - wth
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That is the creepiest thing I can imagine. I can't even imagine how I would react to that!
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I went to go get an oil change and tire rotation this morning and they must have had a NASCAR pit crew working in there. I was in and out of the dealership in less than 30 minutes.
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Took both cars in yesterday to register and one did not need emissions and the other did. This is an off-site non-DMV location where a car can be registered with new tags. My car took me 3 minutes with no emissions and the other took 10 minutes with emissions. If I was at the DMV, I'd still be there. The state also just moved to one tag with the month/year where previously, the ones I replaced has a separate month tag and year tag. Used to have three with the other being the county where registered.
 
ursus said:
That is the creepiest thing I can imagine. I can't even imagine how I would react to that!
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https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/why-do-people-hear-their-names-being-called-in-the-woods (Why do people hear their names being called in the woods?)

Ive heard all sorts of things in the Catskills that I thought were humans, turned out to be just wildlife. I have heared Bobcat calls in the distance (very scary sound if you dont know what they are) but never gone deeper into the woods to try and spot a Cat (they are very shy and run when they see people, you will not see one. they are masters of disguise). Bobcats are sooooooooooooo cute, if it weren't dangerous and unethical, I would want a Pet Bob.
 
Speaking of department vehicles...

Last week one of my coworkers checked out one of the county vehicles we keep parked out front to take some stuff to a conference. He made it about 3 miles before all sorts lights started flashing on the dash and he could smell something burning. He pulled off into another office parking lot and called the motor pool maintenance line and they sent a wrecker out and another coworker came to pick him up and get him to the conference.

Later that afternoon my coworker called the garage because he was curious about what happened. Once they got the car and started looking at it, they found a few pounds of acorns and pine straw stuffed under dash and a lot of chewed up wiring. How long had that car been sitting there unused that the squirrels decided it would be a good place to build a nest?

:rofl:
 
I was using my 26 year old Battle Camry for work related drives, until they told me "dont waste your gas, take a code car" and since than I have been using a Ford Escape 2019 as my recon vehicle. Its actually nice, people show you more respect on the road with the City plates and logos. Wish it were manual though.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Speaking of department vehicles...

Last week one of my coworkers checked out one of the county vehicles we keep parked out front to take some stuff to a conference. He made it about 3 miles before all sorts lights started flashing on the dash and he could smell something burning. He pulled off into another office parking lot and called the motor pool maintenance line and they sent a wrecker out and another coworker came to pick him up and get him to the conference.

Later that afternoon my coworker called the garage because he was curious about what happened. Once they got the car and started looking at it, they found a few pounds of acorns and pine straw stuffed under dash and a lot of chewed up wiring. How long had that car been sitting there unused that the squirrels decided it would be a good place to build a nest?
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We have one of those. The building department keeps a spare truck or two because they argue they can't be down for any time. We wind up purchasing one new vehicle per year for them which means their normal fleet is between 1-5 years old with a spare being 6-8 years old. Apparently they missed one and a nice family of mice or chipmunks or both made homes in the engine. Then something died. Unfortunately/fortunately it wouldn't start so they found the issues before they tried to go any where in it.
 
My uncle got divorced for like the third time and bought the 5-pack tshirts and underwear from walmart for several years. Jeans you don't have to wash I guess
 
DVD said:
I'm not authorized to drive a city vehicle. You have to go through some paperwork and I don't want to.
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I once drove the CD Director (my boss), the Mayor and a Councilman on a field visit outside the city during the pandemic in a city vehicle. My driver's license had expired. Right after that happened, the normal review of authorized drivers showed my expired license. I did NOT get fired. I can be very charming...and also a careless idiot....you know, the more I think about it, the two things kinda go together so there's that. :)
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Wow, I have to sign out a Code vehicle when I need a car - pretty slick, @Planit
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We have to sign out as we share with finance. One of the new vehicles has almost all radio and climate controls on touchpad. I hate this. You have to take your eyes off the road to find or adjust anything. I've said before and I'll say again, all climate controls should be dials as they are intuitive and can be adjusted without looking.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
We have to sign out as we share with finance. One of the new vehicles has almost all radio and climate controls on touchpad. I hate this. You have to take your eyes off the road to find or adjust anything. I've said before and I'll say again, all climate controls should be dials as they are intuitive and can be adjusted without looking.
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yes #getoffmylawn but yes
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Have you turned them inside-out yet? Backwards? Backwards and inside-out?
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In my 20s I didnt care and would do that, now I have enough pairs to last me two weeks, and I am on day 13 of 14. Overflow clothing is still with my folks Downstate. I think the laundromat will be a stop tonight. Already did my grocery shopping @ Tops Friendly Markets (the friendliest of markets) and have no other obligations later. I actually like my Laundry spot, $7 gets you full wash and dry of a reasonable size load. They have AC and a really bomb ass vending machine where nothing is more than $2
 
Gedunker said:
My commute is exactly 0.84 "Green Grass and High Tides" by The Outlaws.
Driving Fast And Furious GIF by The Fast Saga
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I think I've mentioned it here before but we like to measure driving distances in terms of Framptons. One Frampton is just over 14 minutes long... the length of the full album version of Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" from the 1976 Album Frampton Comes Alive and I once discovered that that's the nearly the exact amount of time it takes me to drive to my office in the morning on the rare occasion I don't hit any lights. We use this unit of measurement so frequently that if I have the GPS map displayed in the car, our youngest will usually yell out, "Less than a Frampton to go!" when the ETA gets down below 15 minutes and the it's the only song I've bothered to save to the internal hard drive in my Jeep so that I can quickly queue it up when we want to test to see if we are really "a Frampton" away from somewhere.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I think I've mentioned it here before but we like to measure driving distances in terms of Framptons. One Frampton is just over 14 minutes long... the length of the full album version of Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" from the 1976 Album Frampton Comes Alive and I once discovered that that's the nearly the exact amount of time it takes me to drive to my office in the morning on the rare occasion I don't hit any lights. We use this unit of measurement so frequently that if I have the GPS map displayed in the car, our youngest will usually yell out, "Less than a Frampton to go!" when the ETA gets down below 15 minutes and the it's the only song I've bothered to save to the internal hard drive in my Jeep so that I can quickly queue it up when we want to test to see if we are really "a Frampton" away from somewhere.
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When I worked at a major hotel resort as a bellman, and I knew people were from Boston, I'd give distances in smoots.
 
The Terminator said:
View attachment 64978

Here's a 1972 Commando
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A buddy of mine had a 71 Jeepster Commando hardtop. He did a retro mod project on the exterior, the windows in the cover were removed and fiber-glassed over, the rear tail light assembly was replaced with rear lights from a 66 mustang, and painted metallic forest green. We called it the turtle. His dad said it was a $500 turd with $1200 worth of body work, $2000 worth of paint, and $3000 worth of audio equipment. It had the willys huricane inline 4 cylinder.
 
Big Owl said:
A buddy of mine had a 71 Jeepster Commando hardtop. He did a retro mod project on the exterior, the windows in the cover were removed and fiber-glassed over, the rear tail light assembly was replaced with rear lights from a 66 mustang, and painted metallic forest green. We called it the turtle. His dad said it was a $500 turd with $1200 worth of body work, $2000 worth of paint, and $3000 worth of audio equipment. It had the willys huricane inline 4 cylinder.
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was this in the late 80s/early 90s when they were still cheap old turdy trucks from the classifieds? It seem sacreligious to mod one like that now.
 
WOW - 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia
 
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A bit annoyed that I went to an interview for a state agency yesterday, under the same umbrella as the agency I once worked for. At the end of the interview, after I thought it had gone well, they said, ā€œOh, by the way, this is a contract job, so youā€™ll be a 1099, with no benefits or PERS.ā€

Should have started with that. Pass.

Since they would be telling me when, where, and how to do the job, Iā€™m not a 1099.
ā€”-

In other news, Iā€™ve decided not to take that 20-hour-a-week warehouse office job. Iā€™ll spend that time on searching and career development.
 
It feels really quiet. Too quiet. We need somebody to pull the fire alarm or light a fire-cracker in a toilet here in Cyburbia's hallowed halls. Who's a likely candidate? It feels like a job for @DVD maybe.... :)
 
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