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

mendelman said:
@jumbach

Although, looking at your neighborhood's aerial photo, thats a pretty nice location right on the Truckee River and foothills in the near distance.

Is there an 'easy' pedestrian/cycling access under the highway to the hills? Are there decent currents and/or rapids on the Truckee?

Maybe I'll buy it, rehab it from a distance and turn it into a STR? Sorry. ;)
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The HOA would have something to say about the STR. I don't care, but we have a lot of neighbors that would.
 
jumbach said:
The HOA would have something to say about the STR.
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Come At Me Bro GIF by WWE


;)
 
Big Owl said:
That sucks. I had to repair my washing machine earlier this week. It is 30 years old and parts are harder to find for it. Fortunately, for me it was a easy diagnosis and the part needed was common to a number of brand's washing machine. Ironically a week prior, I repaired my parent's 18 year old washing machine. It was a loose hose connection. I am sure I jinxed myself when I mentioned that my washing machine was 30 years old.

I hope your issue is simple and covered by a warranty.
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We're planning on remodeling our kitchen and replacing the applicances (including a larger oven). Our current stuff is maybe 10 years old Samsung appliances and are having issues, but we don't want to spend money until he remodel. Youtube and amazon orders for parts have been tremendous to keep them working on the cheap.
 
Big Owl said:
That sucks. I had to repair my washing machine earlier this week. It is 30 years old and parts are harder to find for it. Fortunately, for me it was a easy diagnosis and the part needed was common to a number of brand's washing machine. Ironically a week prior, I repaired my parent's 18 year old washing machine. It was a loose hose connection. I am sure I jinxed myself when I mentioned that my washing machine was 30 years old.

I hope your issue is simple and covered by a warranty.
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Our washer just turned 20 years old. It is probably approaching replacement--the lid is starting to rust. For now I'm going to look for some rust inhibitor appliance paint to buy a bit of time--I like this washer because it has no brain--it is all simple mechanical/electronics.
 
My day this past Saturday (which oddly for the fall did not involve me sitting in front of a UGA game and yelling at the TV for 3+ hours):

  • Up at zero dark thirty (aka 7 AM for me on a weekend) to drive about three hours down into the south Georgia countryside to see some friends of ours for the weekend (they live on 10 acres in almost the middle of nowhere);
  • Lunch in the closest town at a pretty decent Greek restaurant;
  • Drive an hour north from there to a small town for a rum distillery tour (after a quick walk through their downtown past all of their annual Pig Fest vendors), involving an indecent amount of samples of their various rum distillations;
  • Walk out of the distillery (we did have a designated driver, thankfully), bump into a guy our friends know who makes custom guitars he sells for $2k and up, go over his place and hang out in his workshop for an hour or so.
  • Head back to the aforementioned "closest town" for dinner out;
  • Go back to our friends' place, and then walk over to the next property to drink beer and watch deer being skinned and gutted (their neighbors run a deer processing operation that runs until at least 9 PM every day during the season).

Just in case any of y'all wonder why I chose Bubba as my user name...
 
After years of asking for it, we finally have a telephone system that forwards calls from our deskphone to our computers (is that VOIP?) and allows us to make outgoing phone calls from our computer as well.

Of course, IT didn't really tell us we were getting this service so I was definitely caught off guard when my computer started ringing like a telephone a few minutes ago while I was sitting in my den!
 
I don't know if I'm flattered that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch today with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club, or if I'm offended that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club.
 
Kind of a weird day of work before having tomorrow off for Veteran's Day. Half of the office took this as a 4 day weekend. I am sitting here unmotivated, and really thinking I need a better system of organizing my time.

I am also watching the govt shutdown news. If they open up, I may have to fly to DC this week to rattle our Senators' cage on some Federal water permits.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I don't know if I'm flattered that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch today with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club, or if I'm offended that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club.
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We're almost 50 years old, my man.

Aging Matt Damon GIF
 
dandy_warhol said:
Red alert! Red alert! My cats want you to know that there is a MOUSE in the backyard eating bird seed! A MOUSE! A MOUSE who dares to enter the backyard of two ferocious indoor kitties!
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Our dog is actually a super hero known as the Arff-tastic-ruff who's mission is to protect us from the evil tree rats (squirrels) that are trying to take over thew world. Her new sidekick, the Pesky Puppy, is quickly learning the importance of fighting the evil-doers.

I am happy to say that we have not been attacked by a squirrel since she came to live with us 6 years ago.
 
michaelskis said:
Our dog is actually a super hero known as the Arff-tastic-ruff who's mission is to protect us from the evil tree rats (squirrels) that are trying to take over thew world. Her new sidekick, the Pesky Puppy, is quickly learning the importance of fighting the evil-doers.

I am happy to say that we have not been attacked by a squirrel since she came to live with us 6 years ago.
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Thank heavens you are being protected from such vile and dastardly creatures!
 
dandy_warhol said:
Red alert! Red alert! My cats want you to know that there is a MOUSE in the backyard eating bird seed! A MOUSE! A MOUSE who dares to enter the backyard of two ferocious indoor kitties!
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My kitties will see your mouse and raise you a hummingbird! It's right outside the window and doesn't see me. I will get the hummingbird one of these day when it least suspects it.
 
Bubba said:
I just suffered through an eight-minute long very light snow flurry here in the northern Atlanta burbs. Yes, I'm inside, but I still suffered. Time to move to Miami, I think.
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Pffft...meanwhile in the Great Lakes region, we all be....

Deep Snow GIF


o_O ;) :cool: :brofist:
 
Today's a holiday for me but no one else in the family and yesterday was a wash for getting actual work done, so here I am in the office. Happy to DND the phone for the day and just work on stuff I want to for once. The morning started with clearing snow from cars, finding and plugging in an extension cord for the heated chicken waterer I haven;t needed until this morning, and other household stuff. There's about 4" of snow on the ground where I am and it looks great.

I often spend Veteran's Day raking leaves and doing stuff around the yard that gets us ready for winter, but all the leaves I'd be raking are under the snow so I'll do it another time.

I am behind the 8-ball getting my snow tires on. I have an appointment for 11/24 and last night's drive home in the storm was interesting on my "Please throw them away when you take them off this fall" mostly bald all-season tires.
 
I often spend Veteran's Day at work. In fact, I don't think I ever spent a Veteran's Day not working since I was actually on active duty.
 
I just gave a really and truly terrible analogy to a planner to make him feel better about writing a document supporting a conclusion he doesn't agree with - - - and it worked. It appears that my Father In Law is correct: I am Satan.
 
ursus said:
I just gave a really and truly terrible analogy to a planner to make him feel better about writing a document supporting a conclusion he doesn't agree with - - - and it worked. It appears that my Father In Law is correct: I am Satan.
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So what was this "truly terrible analogy" that you gave ?

Don't believe you are Satan, that is reserved for DJT & MAGA
 
JNA said:
So what was this "truly terrible analogy" that you gave ?

Don't believe you are Satan, that is reserved for DJT & MAGA
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Not a nice analogy. I hesitate to share, but, what the hell. :)

I told him he had to look at the situation the way Martha Stewart probably would. Does she love home decor? Yes. Does she feel passionately about good design and quality presentation? Yes. BUT, would she pl**sure a goat on live television if it was worth the money? Absolutely. Not my finest hour. :)

But, that's the job sometimes. We make our views known and we get to advocate for the best versions of things and all the right things, but sometimes, well, sometimes we are just shoveling sh**.
 
jumbach said:
Aurora Borealis from my front yard!
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That's awesome!

Sadly it was way too cloudy here to see it last night.

My computer has the worst Bluetooth connection known to man.

Veteran's Day continues to be my favorite holiday. Not for any sense of patriotism or nostalgia for my time in the service but 100% because it's the one holiday I have off from work while my kids still have to go to school.

I enjoyed the day off by going for a long walk to get lunch and by getting two beers at lunch instead of one and getting a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks on the walk home
 
michaelskis said:
Sorry, that is too many letters for an organization acronym.
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we call it Knee-capa

Just got back from a destination wedding in Charleston - it was a fun weekend overall, love the downtown vibe, walked the beach, and some of the neighborhoods were very livable - went to some great restaurants - Crosby's near the beach, Hanks, and Queen 82 most notably

the venue at Middleton felt really weird - the reception hall was a new building, so I didn't feel the whole plantation ghost thing, but the ceremony in the garden was a little unsettling

The bride was beautiful. I have known her since she was a baby - her mom was pregnant with the now bride when I met her, and then she was my boss way back in Massachusetts, and our families became close friends. I hadn't seen my friend in a while, so it was nice to reconnect

I'm nursing a cold I picked up along the way - if I could, I would have called in sick, but I have been away for a while

Oh, and I should mention that we drove from the great state of Maine to Charleston - we lived on car snacks and walked around on bathroom breaks/fuel stops It took about 19 hours. Going down, we were routed along 81 because of traffic along the coast, and it was nice to see Shenandoah and the like in full color - coming back was more urbanized along 95 as we drove through the night - the SMSA on the eastern seaboard is really remarkable.
 
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ursus said:
Not a nice analogy. I hesitate to share, but, what the hell. :)

I told him he had to look at the situation the way Martha Stewart probably would. Does she love home decor? Yes. Does she feel passionately about good design and quality presentation? Yes. BUT, would she pl**sure a goat on live television if it was worth the money? Absolutely. Not my finest hour. :)

But, that's the job sometimes. We make our views known and we get to advocate for the best versions of things and all the right things, but sometimes, well, sometimes we are just shoveling sh**.
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At our attorney’s insistence, I now have to write a zoning consistency statement for both the approval and denial of every rezoning request. Writing the one that aligns with my recommendation is easy. Writing the one that goes against it, however, is much harder. I get paid the same for both, but since the opposing statement takes twice as long to write, I like to think I’m earning double for the one I don’t agree with.

Thanks to your perspective, it could always be worst. I could be Martha Stewart's goat and not get paid anything for doing something that I didn't agree with.
 
We had the day off yesterday, because we love 'merica. I took the kid to get pizza and ice cream and then had to stop by the office for a couple of hours because Planning Commission is moved up to next week with Thanksgiving.

On Monday night my kid had a Veteran's Day program. Midway through the songs, they asked any active duty or veterans to stand during their branch's official song. We get lots of retirees from Fort Benning so there were quite a few Army members, a handful of Marines, and one or two Air Force and Coast Guard. It was funny then because they played a song I never heard and I though maybe Merchant Marines until I realized it was the official Space Force song. No one stood.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I don't know if I'm flattered that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch today with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club, or if I'm offended that one of the old guys at the club invited me to a Marine Corps Birthday lunch with a few other USMC vets from the local senior men's club.
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1762956668429.png
 
Big Owl said:
At our attorney’s insistence, I now have to write a zoning consistency statement for both the approval and denial of every rezoning request.
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Boooooo.

Are you at least given the (presumed) denial or approval rationale time to drafting?

Are you also a mind reader as to the reason(s) that may come from the recommending body and/or the electeds?

GIF by Robert E Blackmon
 
ursus said:
Not a nice analogy. I hesitate to share, but, what the hell. :)

I told him he had to look at the situation the way Martha Stewart probably would. Does she love home decor? Yes. Does she feel passionately about good design and quality presentation? Yes. BUT, would she pl**sure a goat on live television if it was worth the money? Absolutely. Not my finest hour. :)

But, that's the job sometimes. We make our views known and we get to advocate for the best versions of things and all the right things, but sometimes, well, sometimes we are just shoveling sh**.
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That's a great analogy. I told someone to do the same thing last week, but not with as much prose or risk of an HR review.
 
Ive been getting on pretty well with my City Engineer, who has been with us forever and is a good guy. On Monday, I Found out said Engineer was a 2nd wave punker in the 80s, and we like a lot of the same music! He saw Black Flag, GBH, Dead Kennedy's, The Butthole Surfers, Husker Du and many others in the 1981-85 era. He's won some brownie points with me ;)
 
The Terminator said:
Ive been getting on pretty well with my City Engineer, who has been with us forever and is a good guy. On Monday, I Found out said Engineer was a 2nd wave punker in the 80s, and we like a lot of the same music! He saw Black Flag, GBH, Dead Kennedy's, The Butthole Surfers, Husker Du and many others in the 1981-85 era. He's won some brownie points with me ;)
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Punks do brownie points? I thought it would be something cooler you know, edgy and punk and not associated to little girls with cookies.
 
Big Owl said:
At our attorney’s insistence, I now have to write a zoning consistency statement for both the approval and denial of every rezoning request. Writing the one that aligns with my recommendation is easy. Writing the one that goes against it, however, is much harder. I get paid the same for both, but since the opposing statement takes twice as long to write, I like to think I’m earning double for the one I don’t agree with.
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I am always fascinated by this. Because if something IS consistent with the regulations, then you recommend approval, but if it IS NOT consistent, then you don't recommend approval. It feels like grasping for straws to have to do both knowing that one will have a lot more evidence to support your recommendation than the alternative. If both of these were brought into court if a board did something other than what you recommended, I think an opposing attorney would have a field day with this.
 
The Terminator said:
Ive been getting on pretty well with my City Engineer, who has been with us forever and is a good guy. On Monday, I Found out said Engineer was a 2nd wave punker in the 80s, and we like a lot of the same music! He saw Black Flag, GBH, Dead Kennedy's, The Butthole Surfers, Husker Du and many others in the 1981-85 era. He's won some brownie points with me ;)
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TT be all like:
Star Wars Twitch GIF by Hyper RPG
 
DVD said:
Punks do brownie points? I thought it would be something cooler you know, edgy and punk and not associated to little girls with cookies.
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Well, we know punks aren't fans of ice cream eating motherf*ckers!

...Fugazi has made the terrible mistake of using its position as a bully pulpit. It preaches and preaches and preaches. Take the famous “ice-cream-eating motherf*cker” incident, which is captured in Jem Cohen’s documentary about Fugazi, Instrument. In it, MacKaye berates two punks for hurting people in the audience. “It sucks to have to tell people how to behave themselves,” he says, sounding less like a punker than a hall monitor at Our Lady of Fugazi Middle School. Then Picciotto says, “I saw you two guys earlier at the Good Humor truck, and you were eating your ice cream like little boys….Oh, I saw you eating ice cream, pal….You were eating an ice-cream cone, and I saw you….You’re an ice-cream-eating motherf*cker, that’s what you are.”...
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mendelman said:
Boooooo.

Are you at least given the (presumed) denial or approval rationale time to drafting?

Are you also a mind reader as to the reason(s) that may come from the recommending body and/or the electeds?

GIF by Robert E Blackmon
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The policy was the result of litigation. Our board doesn't typically think beyond approval or denial. The consistency statements give them the rationale to deny or approve. They have to read the consistency statement for either action so it becomes part of the motion. If they intend to approve with conditions or other issues come up, then they would have to table the action and direct staff to draft a consistency statement to support their intended action. It can be complicated but that's what our state legislators wanted.

michaelskis said:
I am always fascinated by this. Because if something IS consistent with the regulations, then you recommend approval, but if it IS NOT consistent, then you don't recommend approval. It feels like grasping for straws to have to do both knowing that one will have a lot more evidence to support your recommendation than the alternative. If both of these were brought into court if a board did something other than what you recommended, I think an opposing attorney would have a field day with this.
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I am with you on this. It is grasping for straws.
 
We will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. I have Monday off standard. Contemplating requesting Tuesday and Wednesday. Christmas has the office closed the 24-26 and I have requested Tuesday off. Nothing happening that week so no sense in working one day that week.

Previous employer did not give Thanksgiving Friday off, but the offices were closed, so we had to take PTO for that day or work.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Well, we know punks aren't fans of ice cream eating motherf*ckers!
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Meanwhile Ian & Henry both worked in a Haagen-Daz shop in the Minor Threat days ;)

Fugazi's first three records are classic and foundational post-hardcore. But they have a reputation of being kind of killjoys and very very preachy/judgmental. The consensus on them is "absolute legends, so we put up with their particularities". They also haven't played since 2002 but arent officially broken up.
 
The Terminator said:
Meanwhile Ian & Henry both worked in a Haagen-Daz shop in the Minor Threat days ;)

Fugazi's first three records are classic and foundational post-hardcore. But they have a reputation of being kind of killjoys and very very preachy/judgmental. The consensus on them is "absolute legends, so we put up with their particularities". They also haven't played since 2002 but arent officially broken up.
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I forgot all about their ice cream slinging days! (I'm pretty sure I read that in the fantastic book Our Band Could Be Your Life)

Maybe working that retail-level food service job is what MacKaye his particular disdain for ice cream connoisseurs! :rofl:
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
That's awesome!

Sadly it was way too cloudy here to see it last night.

My computer has the worst Bluetooth connection known to man.

Veteran's Day continues to be my favorite holiday. Not for any sense of patriotism or nostalgia for my time in the service but 100% because it's the one holiday I have off from work while my kids still have to go to school.

I enjoyed the day off by going for a long walk to get lunch and by getting two beers at lunch instead of one and getting a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks on the walk home
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When I lived in Alaska as a kid, I never saw it, because it was either too bright (late sunsets) or too cloudy.

(Short version is I went to Alaska for a while to be with my grandparents when I was 12 while my parents figured things out. It all turned out well though.)
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
We will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. I have Monday off standard. Contemplating requesting Tuesday and Wednesday. Christmas has the office closed the 24-26 and I have requested Tuesday off. Nothing happening that week so no sense in working one day that week.

Previous employer did not give Thanksgiving Friday off, but the offices were closed, so we had to take PTO for that day or work.
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We get Thanksgiving and Black Friday off as state holidays.

We also get Christmas off, and the Mayor has given us Christmas Eve off as well. I am taking 12-26 as PTO to enjoy a nice five-day weekend. I do plan to work on January 2, but it will be crickets around here.
 
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