• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 21 (2026)

Doohickie said:
Last time I had food delivered was old-fashioned pizza delivery. I've never used Uber Eats or any of those.
Click to expand...

We've also never used Uber Eats or DoorDash or anything like that. We get pizza a lot but we've only ever done delivery two times: once when our oldest was about 4 because she thought it would be cool to have a pizza delivered and once back in 2021 when a local place in our downtown began using a self driving robot to deliver pizzas and I thought that would be cool. Spoiler: it was cool!

For whatever reason, the pizza place stopped using the robots after a year or so we never ordered delivery from them again. Besides, this particular pizza has a shelf life of about 8 minutes. It's delicious if you're in the restaurant and sit down there to eat it but if you take it home it's just not good.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We've also never used Uber Eats or DoorDash or anything like that. We get pizza a lot but we've only ever done delivery two times: once when our oldest was about 4 because she thought it would be cool to have a pizza delivered and once back in 2021 when a local place in our downtown began using a self driving robot to deliver pizzas and I thought that would be cool. Spoiler: it was cool!

For whatever reason, the pizza place stopped using the robots after a year or so we never ordered delivery from them again. Besides, this particular pizza has a shelf life of about 8 minutes. It's delicious if you're in the restaurant and sit down there to eat it but if you take it home it's just not good.
Click to expand...

Last month I ordered several pizzas for my kid's birthday party from a national chain that does delivery. I won't say names, but they have this Roman guy that says "Pizza Pizza". It was way past the delivery time so I called the location and they told me that the door dash driver left with the pizzas 20 minutes ago. Shortly after that I get a call from the driver who says he can't find my house. I had to give him turn by turn directions through he neighborhood.

I called the pizza place back and asked for the driver's tip back. They refused so I explain that I will never order from them again and encourage my neighbors to do the same. I have only used a food delivery service like that 3 times (twice knowing so and the last not knowing...) and will never use them again. I now pick up something on my way home from work, run out to get it, or we eat whatever we can find in the house...

Oh, look a can of SPAM!
 
michaelskis said:
How often do you get back into your vehicle after a haircut, and the first thing you do is adjust it to how you like it vs how the person who cut it thinks it should look?
Click to expand...
I have been going to the same barber for 25 years. He retired from his shop a few years ago and his son now runs, but has not taken ownership as my barber and his son are not on the same page as to value. He now operates his own shop at home and still takes customers so I continue to go. What bothered me with other "stylists" and some barbers, is that they would spray my hair down, recomb and create a part nowhere near where I do. My barber does not adjust my part and cuts accordingly. What I do once I leave and before I get into my car is that I run my hands through my hair to knock out more loose hair since his vacuum does not get all and only a shampoo/shower does. But the hands brushing helps.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We've also never used Uber Eats or DoorDash or anything like that. We get pizza a lot but we've only ever done delivery two times: once when our oldest was about 4 because she thought it would be cool to have a pizza delivered and once back in 2021 when a local place in our downtown began using a self driving robot to deliver pizzas and I thought that would be cool. Spoiler: it was cool!

For whatever reason, the pizza place stopped using the robots after a year or so we never ordered delivery from them again. Besides, this particular pizza has a shelf life of about 8 minutes. It's delicious if you're in the restaurant and sit down there to eat it but if you take it home it's just not good.
Click to expand...
We are thinking of having DoorDash bring us Popeye's tonight, so we don't have to interrupt our Stranger Things finale to cook dinner. Run time is 2h8m, so we are treating it like a movie. We plan to start the show at 7:22 pm, so it will end right at our 9:30 bedtime. I am not bothering with the hockey game tonight.
 
Last edited:
The Canadians that have come south of the border and play in my hockey league are good guys, when they're on your team... otherwise, watch out.

I have been to 12 NHL arenas (one visit was an ECF game with @michaelskis in Carolina!). The one game in Canada I went to was in Vancouver. The fans around me were so focused on the game they didn't make small talk. Indicative of Canada as a whole?
 
zman said:
The Canadians that have come south of the border and play in my hockey league are good guys, when they're on your team... otherwise, watch out.

I have been to 12 NHL arenas (one visit was an ECF game with @michaelskis in Carolina!). The one game in Canada I went to was in Vancouver. The fans around me were so focused on the game they didn't make small talk. Indicative of Canada as a whole?
Click to expand...
My wife knows not to bother me for anything short of a house fire when Vancouver is playing. And even then, wait until the intermission.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
@Canadian Planner I see you joined in 2007...currently with 74 posts...welcome back.

To anyone...how about stereotypes of Canadian hockey fans.
Click to expand...
1768520591600.png
 
jumbach said:
Due to recent events in our life, my wife is wondering if I need to be worried about ICE coming after me. I am a duel citizen, which does not make me a "pure American" in some peoples' eyes. This despite the fact I was born in California, have lived in the US my whole life, and seldom visit Canada, whose citizenship I only have accidentally, via my mother. I consider myself American first and foremost. I don't vote or have any ties to Canada, really. (Except a hockey obsession.)
Click to expand...
You are lucky to be a dual citizen because you have an out of it comes to that. Legally you are not required to carry proof of US citizenship with you. If you are white and do not have an accent, you are likely fine. If not, it will not matter anyways.

A Puerto Rican born veteran was detained by ICE in my old neighborhood while he was eating lunch at a restaurant. He told them he was born in PR and was a veteran and showed them his military ID. They said they did not care and he could have bought the ID on the street. His family had to go to the detention center with his birth certificate to get him out. They were just like oops, our bad.
 
kjel said:
You are lucky to be a dual citizen because you have an out of it comes to that. Legally you are not required to carry proof of US citizenship with you. If you are white and do not have an accent, you are likely fine. If not, it will not matter anyways.

A Puerto Rican born veteran was detained by ICE in my old neighborhood while he was eating lunch at a restaurant. He told them he was born in PR and was a veteran and showed them his military ID. They said they did not care and he could have bought the ID on the street. His family had to go to the detention center with his birth certificate to get him out. They were just like oops, our bad.
Click to expand...
So it doesn't matter if you show papers, like we have been told we may have to do now

omg

also I did see a TikTok from this woman in Michigan who wanted to work remotely in Toronto for a month, had booked an Airbnb for that month, and they wouldn't let her leave the US to go, so that's a little freaky too if true
 
TIL that on April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper from Motorola stood on a New York City sidewalk and called his rival at AT&T just to say, “I’m calling you from a cell phone.” Not to share news or check in, but purely to make sure the other guy knew it was a cell phone. Ironically, that set the standard, because even today most everyone’s first call on a cell phone is basically the same thing: letting someone know they’re calling from a cell phone.
 
michaelskis said:
Last month I ordered several pizzas for my kid's birthday party from a national chain that does delivery. I won't say names, but they have this Roman guy that says "Pizza Pizza". It was way past the delivery time so I called the location and they told me that the door dash driver left with the pizzas 20 minutes ago. Shortly after that I get a call from the driver who says he can't find my house. I had to give him turn by turn directions through he neighborhood.

I called the pizza place back and asked for the driver's tip back. They refused so I explain that I will never order from them again and encourage my neighbors to do the same. I have only used a food delivery service like that 3 times (twice knowing so and the last not knowing...) and will never use them again. I now pick up something on my way home from work, run out to get it, or we eat whatever we can find in the house...

Oh, look a can of SPAM!
Click to expand...
For the general public - if you have an issue with a delivery issue with Door Dash, you ALWAYS contact Door Dash, not the restaurant. Door Dash will almost always refund you completely.
 
Our missing acquaintance has been found. She went to the doctor on the 2nd for a routine matter, ended up getting admitted to the hospital. Came home yesterday.
 
btrage said:
For the general public - if you have an issue with a delivery issue with Door Dash, you ALWAYS contact Door Dash, not the restaurant. Door Dash will almost always refund you completely.
Click to expand...
When I was a Doordash driver, I took pride in my work. If I made a mistake (rare), I would fix it. If the restaurant goofed up, that was on them.
 
We watched the Stranger Things finale last night. Without spoiling anything, the ending was satisfactory, but ambiguous with regards to one of the main characters.

(We treated it as a movie night and had Popeye's delivered from the aforementioned DoorDash. Order was perfect.)

Jim
 
luckless pedestrian said:
So it doesn't matter if you show papers, like we have been told we may have to do now

omg

also I did see a TikTok from this woman in Michigan who wanted to work remotely in Toronto for a month, had booked an Airbnb for that month, and they wouldn't let her leave the US to go, so that's a little freaky too if true
Click to expand...
Yeah, we've joked we can always defect to Canada. But it's technically not defecting.

I don't think we can just move there and start work the next day--I am sure it's more complicated than that. We'd need a bank to get a place, and to do that we'd need credit, which we don't have, since credit scores don't carry over, even if they are excellent. She is married to a citizen, which should make citizenship easy for her, but I don't know those details.

Regardless, we aren't moving, as much as I am a bit frustrated with the USA's leader right now. But that's a topic for another thread.
 
kjel said:
You are lucky to be a dual citizen because you have an out of it comes to that. Legally you are not required to carry proof of US citizenship with you. If you are white and do not have an accent, you are likely fine. If not, it will not matter anyways.

A Puerto Rican born veteran was detained by ICE in my old neighborhood while he was eating lunch at a restaurant. He told them he was born in PR and was a veteran and showed them his military ID. They said they did not care and he could have bought the ID on the street. His family had to go to the detention center with his birth certificate to get him out. They were just like oops, our bad.
Click to expand...
Puerto Ricans are Americans . . . many people don't understand that.
 
Gonna get a bit real here:
My extended family has a handful of group texts, which have been morphed into a standard "main chat" mostly used for life events and talking smack about football. As I was fixin to leave my place this morning for work, I see a text from my mother pop up on my watch, the message being something random about my oldest son having to stay in the NICU for 21 days when he was born (said son is now 16yo). So, grabbing my phone, I see that my mom sent this through a text thread from 2024 that my aunt in Texas started about a new granddaughter being born. Of course, this random addition to the thread prompted a couple "everything ok?" texts from KY, TX, and CO. I replied that everything is ok on my end. My mom has struggled with alcohol for decades and I think some things are slipping in general. This happens every now and then and always sets a tone for my day....
 
Not sure if I posted this here yet, but at my women's group party this week that I hosted, someone made a PowerPoint of who in the group would least likely or most likely survive Hunger Games, and I came in second to last, meaning I would not survive lol - a little harsh but accurate
 
zman said:
Gonna get a bit real here:
My extended family has a handful of group texts, which have been morphed into a standard "main chat" mostly used for life events and talking smack about football. As I was fixin to leave my place this morning for work, I see a text from my mother pop up on my watch, the message being something random about my oldest son having to stay in the NICU for 21 days when he was born (said son is now 16yo). So, grabbing my phone, I see that my mom sent this through a text thread from 2024 that my aunt in Texas started about a new granddaughter being born. Of course, this random addition to the thread prompted a couple "everything ok?" texts from KY, TX, and CO. I replied that everything is ok on my end. My mom has struggled with alcohol for decades and I think some things are slipping in general. This happens every now and then and always sets a tone for my day....
Click to expand...
My wife's family hates group texts involving more than two people. But texting individually is OK. I am a master of cut-n-paste.
 
jumbach said:
My wife's family hates group texts involving more than two people. But texting individually is OK. I am a master of cut-n-paste.
Click to expand...
I went to NPC24 in Minneapolis in 2024. I grew up in Minnesota and then high school years in Iowa. Took some time after the conference to go visit the three places I lived. Met up in Des Moines with my high school buddies who I last saw in 1996. I had their cell numbers so when I returned home, group texted that it was "damn good to see you guys." That started a group text which is still running today. A week or two may go by without a text but nice to be part of that.

luckless pedestrian said:
Not sure if I posted this here yet, but at my women's group party this week that I hosted, someone made a PowerPoint of who in the group would least likely or most likely survive Hunger Games, and I came in second to last, meaning I would not survive lol - a little harsh but accurate
Click to expand...
Mrs. STTG said if it got down to that, she's is not fighting. She's done.
 
Gedunker said:
I may go missing - not of my own choosing - when the War with Denmark starts, given my mother was a Danish national when I and my siblings were born. MAGA will no doubt find me an enemy alien and danger to law and order.

I can tell you already, I won't look good in an orange jumpsuit.
Click to expand...
Those people better not mess with my fellow Jersey expat down along the Ohio River.
 
Wifey and I were out driving a couple of weeks ago in a farm area. "Is that a barn or a house?" she asked me. I couldn't tell either, but it was pretty.

I told her a few seconds later that "It must be a house that only looks like a barn, because a barn is an accessory structure and would not be allowed on the parcel without an accompanying primary structure."

She laughed, but I was dead serious.

1768584417477.png
 
jumbach said:
Wifey and I were out driving a couple of weeks ago in a farm area. "Is that a barn or a house?" she asked me. I couldn't tell either, but it was pretty.

I told her a few seconds later that "It must be a house that only looks like a barn, because a barn is an accessory structure and would not be allowed on the parcel without an accompanying primary structure."

She laughed, but I was dead serious.

View attachment 66118
Click to expand...
that's the new crazy-ass trend of barndominiums - a little over the top but hey whatever
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Not sure if I posted this here yet, but at my women's group party this week that I hosted, someone made a PowerPoint of who in the group would least likely or most likely survive Hunger Games, and I came in second to last, meaning I would not survive lol - a little harsh but accurate
Click to expand...
I apologize to my kids for not adequately preparing them for a zombie apocalypse from time to time.
 
Planit said:
Don't know the front, but I'd cut the corner using their driveway.
Click to expand...

Our neighbors across the street have a driveway like that that connects two different streets (not nearly as extreme as DVD's example). I notice kids in the neighborhood use it to cut the corner when they're on their bikes all the time. In the summer, the mom who lives there will often be sitting on a lawn chair right near their garage while her kids are playing. I told her she should drag the garden hose over and spray the stray kids who ride through; I know I definitely would if it were my house.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Our neighbors across the street have a driveway like that that connects two different streets (not nearly as extreme as DVD's example). I notice kids in the neighborhood use it to cut the corner when they're on their bikes all the time. In the summer, the mom who lives there will often be sitting on a lawn chair right near their garage while her kids are playing. I told her she should drag the garden hose over and spray the stray kids who ride through; I know I definitely would if it were my house.
Click to expand...
My father used to do that to the kids waiting for the bus at the school bus stop. He didn't mind them sitting on the sidewalk or the driveway, but if they sat on his lawn, the sprinklers would suddenly come on. He controlled them from the garage without them knowing.

It only took a couple incidents for that to stop.
 
Speaking of school bus stops, our district has a policy that kids can’t be on their phones while at the bus stop. Once they are safely seated aboard, phone use is allowed.

I can’t wrap my head around the reasoning for that. Every day, I pass them waiting for the bus. I honestly don’t care if they use their phones or not, since they aren’t my kids. I used to get a lot of reading done at the school bus stop. (In actual books.)

I wondered what would happen if a kid went to the bus stop at the usual time on a non-school day, for the express purpose of using the phone at the stop? It’s a public place, so I don’t know what the district can do for an act of civil disobedience like that.
 
Mrs. STTG has a package arriving soon. Here is the tracking: Summit NJ > Jersey City NJ > Newark NJ > Aurora CO > Salt Lake City UT > (50 miles away) > Cheyenne WY > Denver CO > Salt Lake City UT > (city 10 miles away) > (city 7 miles away) > (back to city 10 miles away) > (my town) > (back to city 7 miles away)...WTF?
 
Has anyone used a service like Fiverr?

We recently had an applicant submit plans that were prepared by a freelancer she found on Fiverr. The Building Inspection Department rejected the plans because they were not stamped and sealed by a design professional, among other issues. The plans were later resubmitted with a seal, but they still raised concerns. They appeared unusual and did not include any contact information for the engineer.

As a result, the plan reviewer looked up the engineer’s license number in the state database and contacted him directly. He confirmed that he had no involvement with the project. He has since reported the matter to the State Board of Engineers, and an investigation is underway. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
Trying to contact someone with AAA to see about getting physical cards is impossible unless you are in a state that has their own AAA program.
 
michaelskis said:
Trying to contact someone with AAA to see about getting physical cards is impossible unless you are in a state that has their own AAA program.
Click to expand...
We dropped AAA years ago when they stopped providing printed maps and Tourbooks. We get towing service through our auto insurance, but, thankfully, we haven't had to use it. Plus, we are part of AARP, which provides the same discounts.
 
Last edited:
jumbach said:
We dropped AAA years ago when they stopped providing pritned maps and Tourbooks. We get towing service through our auto insurance, but, thankfully, we haven't had to use it. Plus, we are part of AARP, which provides the same discounts.
Click to expand...

I just learned today that your auto insurance has towing, lock-out, and out of gas services, so we will not be renewing.
 
jumbach said:
Wifey and I were out driving a couple of weeks ago in a farm area. "Is that a barn or a house?" she asked me. I couldn't tell either, but it was pretty.

I told her a few seconds later that "It must be a house that only looks like a barn, because a barn is an accessory structure and would not be allowed on the parcel without an accompanying primary structure."

She laughed, but I was dead serious.

View attachment 66118
Click to expand...
Been there, done that. Looks a lot like many parts of Utah, BTW.
 
Back
Top