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

donk said:
I'm guessing it's not to early to tell everyone how much I HATE the Christmas season.
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No tree, No Christmas Village, No outside lights or inflatables, No Christmas parties or concerts, giving the same presents given last year, No Ugly Christmas sweater.

What else don't I have ?
 
michaelskis said:
There are a few setback violations, but they did alright.

Edit, My sister posted pictures to FB so the family could see, and I have a cousin all pissed off that she didn't get it to put in her house.
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That's a huge display.

Similar situation, my paternal grandmother had a elaborate porcelain nativity scene that was a depiction of little town of Bethlehem that filled up the entire brick fire place hearth, the 2 level mantle, and two small tables on either side of the fire place. Fortunately, my grandmother stipulated before she passed away that whoever took it, had to take it in it's entirety. None of us wanted to take and store the 3 large totes. We reached out to her church and they graciously took it. The cool thing was that a member of her church took some of the excess animals, as there was a lot and made ornaments by drilling a hole and adding a ribbon and a hook for each of her sons and daughter's in laws, and the grand kids. My camel hangs on a ornament hook on the mantle in my dining room year round.
 
Wannaplan? said:
I donā€™t like to admit that I dislike the holidays that occur around this time of year. People just dismissively call me a grinch, grouch, and a grump, as if saying that is somehow meant to turn me around and have a movie-like Christmastime consciousness-raising awakening. I wonā€™t go into the crass commercialism of it all, the off-putting cringey song lyrics, or the cognitive dissonant retreat to ā€œItā€™s tradition!ā€, but simply say that Iā€™m just not into it.
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Well, my stepfather died on December 8, and my father on December 19, so every year those "deathaversies" hurt. But I try to do something to honour them each on those days--on the 8th I listen to Elvis, and on the 19th we go out for Mexican, or watch "It's a Gift with Baby Leroy," one of his favorite movies.
 
Big Owl said:
That's a huge display.

Similar situation, my paternal grandmother had a elaborate porcelain nativity scene that was a depiction of little town of Bethlehem that filled up the entire brick fire place hearth, the 2 level mantle, and two small tables on either side of the fire place. Fortunately, my grandmother stipulated before she passed away that whoever took it, had to take it in it's entirety. None of us wanted to take and store the 3 large totes. We reached out to her church and they graciously took it. The cool thing was that a member of her church took some of the excess animals, as there was a lot and made ornaments by drilling a hole and adding a ribbon and a hook for each of her sons and daughter's in laws, and the grand kids. My camel hangs on a ornament hook on the mantle in my dining room year round.
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We like "Great Christmas Light Fight" on ABC. There is a LOT of creativity!
 
JNA said:
No tree, No Christmas Village, No outside lights or inflatables, No Christmas parties or concerts, giving the same presents given last year, No Ugly Christmas sweater.

What else don't I have ?
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I'm not that bad. We have the tree and my house lights and inflatables are easy. I've already done a Shriner's Christmas thing and went to the local AFB Christmas party to help Santa out of a plane - got Whammed there so I'm out. I'll be at the city next door Christmas parade this Saturday. I'm doing stuff, just nothing that would get me killed like climbing a ladder for some lights or taking up half the living room for a display my wife would have to walk around.
 
MD Planner said:
I've learned that for a significant portion of our population, being pissed off/offended about something is their favorite pastime. I think what you did is awesome and it's going to allow so many more people to enjoy the display. I would not even bother to respond to Cousin Grinch.
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I didn't. My sister deleted her FB comment multiple times, and finally deleted the whole post. She put it back up later last night and one of my aunts used a crying emoji. Not because of tears of memory of my Grandfather, tears because her daughter does not having it in her living room...

Best part is Grandma Nancy who gave it to me for this reason, is very appreciative that people get to see it instead of it sitting in someone's home.
 
Our HOA allows each house to have "up to 50 pounds of pet." Based on our cockatiels' average weight of 80 grams, that means we can have 277 cockatiels flying around our house, in theory.

I can't even begin to imagine that mess.
 
As posted on FB by Bureau of Land Management

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best comment -
Somebody took the time to put that plaque out there. I'm gonna honor their time every time I pass by one.
 
This is our ā€œflag displayā€ at our house (needs a little TLC, which is why itā€™s currently down).

These state flags are not randomly chosen, nor are they in a random order. Can anyone figure out why these particular states are in this particular order on our flag display?

Hint: it does change periodically, with the last change in 2022.
 

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I wish I knew the secret to the perfect peeled hard boiled egg. Just ate two (with Tony Chachere's) and both peeled flawlessly but I know the two I have tomorrow will be completely opposite. I have the boil process down to perfection. The other is an enigma hiding behind a riddle which is being held by a clown.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
I wish I knew the secret to the perfect peeled hard boiled egg. Just ate two (with Tony Chachere's) and both peeled flawlessly but I know the two I have tomorrow will be completely opposite. I have the boil process down to perfection. The other is an enigma hiding behind a riddle which is being held by a clown.
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If you figure it out let me know. I have added salt, vinegar, and baking soda to the water with no noticeable difference. I have also given them an ice bath with no luck. The age of the eggs seem to have an impact with older eggs being easier. I don't always have control of the age of my eggs so that doesn't always help.
 
Big Owl said:
That reminds me, one of the things that I was going to print with my 3D printer was fake historical plaques. I have yet to do that. I need to get on it, any ideas?
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jumbach said:
ā€œOn this spot, on any given date in the past, nothing happened.ā€
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On this spot, on any given date in the past, nothing happened. Except that you are here now.
 
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Big Owl said:
That reminds me, one of the things that I was going to print with my 3D printer was fake historical plaques. I have yet to do that. I need to get on it, any ideas?
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Rock Sound Transference:
In the early 1200's, the ancient people of these lands would come here to communicate with other parts of the world. The whistling and clicking noises made would reverberate off the granite rock near the surface and the vibrations would penetrate through to other parts of the planet. Even today, if you make a whistling then clicking noise just right, there is a chance that someone will respond from another continent.

Then just step back and see people making whistling and clicking noises thinking they are talking to China.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
I wish I knew the secret to the perfect peeled hard boiled egg. Just ate two (with Tony Chachere's) and both peeled flawlessly but I know the two I have tomorrow will be completely opposite. I have the boil process down to perfection. The other is an enigma hiding behind a riddle which is being held by a clown.
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I put them into an instapot in a special basket.

5 minutes pressure cook
5 minute sit, then let out pressure
5 minutes ice bath.

Perfect every time.

Need to make some tonight actually.
 
zman said:
Just served as a witness for an impromptu City Hall wedding. All the while wearing a frumpy hoodie and work pants.

This is the first city I have worked where weddings have been held... Im sure other cities did them, I just wasnt aware. The interesting things that happen in a small town.
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My niece and husband wanted to marry sans any ceremony in extreme SW Virginia. They were told a church type was only kind they could get a license for. So they went to a local lawyer who did it in his office.
 
jumbach said:
Our HOA allows each house to have "up to 50 pounds of pet." Based on our cockatiels' average weight of 80 grams, that means we can have 277 cockatiels flying around our house, in theory.

I can't even begin to imagine that mess.
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I had a planning commission member once who wanted a "pounds of dog/acre" metric in the new zoning we were working on because he didn't like that his neighbors had big dogs.
 
Faust_Motel said:
I had a planning commission member once who wanted a "pounds of dog/acre" metric in the new zoning we were working on because he didn't like that his neighbors had big dogs.
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Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Especially in terms of enforcement. Every time you get a complaint have staff go out there with scales and then get all the dogs to sit still on them so they can be weighed. Easy peasy! You might even want to consider adopting a similar standard for cats as well (cats are typically much lighter than dogs and should therefore be even easier to weigh). Best to round all the animals up and weigh them all at once to save time.
 
Maister said:
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Especially in terms of enforcement. Every time you get a complaint have staff go out there with scales and then get all the dogs to sit still on them so they can be weighed. Easy peasy! You might even want to consider adopting a similar standard for cats as well (cats are typically much lighter than dogs and should therefore be even easier to weigh). Best to round all the animals up and weigh them all at once to save time.
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Perhaps if we placed some sort of ark on the scale...
 
Faust_Motel said:
I had a planning commission member once who wanted a "pounds of dog/acre" metric in the new zoning we were working on because he didn't like that his neighbors had big dogs.
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Maister said:
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Especially in terms of enforcement. Every time you get a complaint have staff go out there with scales and then get all the dogs to sit still on them so they can be weighed. Easy peasy! You might even want to consider adopting a similar standard for cats as well (cats are typically much lighter than dogs and should therefore be even easier to weigh). Best to round all the animals up and weigh them all at once to save time.
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Let's establish maximum ā€œbarks per minuteā€ threshold as well.
 
Maister said:
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Especially in terms of enforcement. Every time you get a complaint have staff go out there with scales and then get all the dogs to sit still on them so they can be weighed. Easy peasy! You might even want to consider adopting a similar standard for cats as well (cats are typically much lighter than dogs and should therefore be even easier to weigh). Best to round all the animals up and weigh them all at once to save time.
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My aquarium states that I'm only supposed to have 1" of fish per gallon of water. This became an issue when my mollies started multiplying.

It would be rough having to tell your kids that you may have to put Rover down because he was a standard poodle instead of a toy poodle and exceeds the weight limit.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
My aquarium states that I'm only supposed to have 1" of fish per gallon of water. This became an issue when my mollies started multiplying.

It would be rough having to tell your kids that you may have to put Rover down because he was a standard poodle instead of a toy poodle and exceeds the weight limit.
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Perhaps if you were to keep the standard poodle in a constant state of starvation you could make the weight limits
 
We have a big bag of pretzels that have broken into a bunch of tiny pieces. We also have a large tin of peppermint bark that is a bit too sweet for most of us in this house. My kids think that mixing the two is the dumbest idea they have ever heard.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We have a big bag of pretzels that have broken into a bunch of tiny pieces. We also have a large tin of peppermint bark that is a bit too sweet for most of us in this house. My kids think that mixing the two is the dumbest idea they have ever heard.
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I know I have watched way too many videos on social media, but mix them together, then line a cookie sheet with parchment, pour them out, and then coat with melted chocolate

lol but yeah
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I know I have watched way too many videos on social media, but mix them together, then line a cookie sheet with parchment, pour them out, and then coat with melted chocolate

lol but yeah
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I already had that in my to-do list. Somehow this bag of pretzels we bought was just all broken pieces so I still have a lot. After we get through all the peppermint bark, I'm going to take the rest of the pretzel pieces and mix them with some mixed nuts that we have and then coat everything in melted chocolate. I may mix in a handful of Chex cereal too.

The peppermint bark is chocolatey enough that that doesn't need any extra chocolate on top of it.
 
When I was a kid, my punishment was often to go weedā€”the one household/yardwork chore I hated. I am perfectly happy doing anything and everything except that.

One day, I got the smart idea to ā€œoutsourceā€ the weeding to a kid down the street who loved all yardwork. He got twenty easy bucks.

So instead of having one unhappy kid and a happy parent, you have three happy people; the parent because the weeding is done, the child (me) because he doesnā€™t have to weed, and the kid down the street because he is $20 richer.

Everyone wins!

Ironically, as an adult, I love weeding in the front yardā€”I find it relaxing. We outsource all other housework to our maid, and our HOA takes care of everything else in the front yard. (I donā€™t worry about the back yard because we never go back there, nor does anyone else.)

= = =

The one thing my parents never took away from me was reading, which is the one thing that really would have hurt. That was--and remains--my favorite "idle time" activity. Being banned from reading would have made it hard to do schoolwork, though, and would have been hard to enforce.
 
Even as a teenager when I was grounded for whatever reason, I was still allowed to go to school, the park, the bookstore, the library, any previously-planned events, or errands with the parents. So during my grounding weeks, I spent a lot of time at libraries and bookstores. :)
 
Standing in line to grab breakfast at the gym and wife calls. Youngest crashed his bike on his way to school and his nose is bleeding like crazy. A neighbor lady said that it looked really bad and walked him back to the house and waited. Cool thing is she is a dentist and said his teeth look fine.

So now we are sitting in the urgent care waiting to see a doctor. Based on past personal experiences, it is likely broken. He is in good spirits about it through. I am sure he is hoping that they put a splint on it so he can look tough when he gets back to school.
 
michaelskis said:
Standing in line to grab breakfast at the gym and wife calls. Youngest crashed his bike on his way to school and his nose is bleeding like crazy. A neighbor lady said that it looked really bad and walked him back to the house and waited. Cool thing is she is a dentist and said his teeth look fine.

So now we are sitting in the urgent care waiting to see a doctor. Based on past personal experiences, it is likely broken. He is in good spirits about it through. I am sure he is hoping that they put a splint on it so he can look tough when he gets back to school.
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So much to love about our health care system. We checked in more than an hour ago and have yet to be seenā€¦

Pay no attention to the 12 year old with a bloody bandage over his faceā€¦
 
Is the receptionist scrolling on her phone? That's what happened to me at my last visit.

I was standing at the desk for a bit when she just happen to look up. She went back to her phone, clicked something (I assume to close the app) and then asked "name and date of birth please" - not even a fake apology.
 
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