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RTDNTOTO šŸ» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 21 (2026)

I was shoveling the driveway in phases but then I decided to take my daughter and her friend sledding at lunch. I had no energy to do the rest of the driveway so now there are a few random clear patches near the garage doors in the rear of the house and around the front porch.
 
I donā€™t even know what to sayā€¦ other than this is not going to work. Perhaps they should not the trying to pull vehicles out if they donā€™t know how to attach a tow strap.

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Our house does not have a milk chute (the spot where it was was bricked over years ago) but many of the other 1950s houses in our neighborhood do still have them. I always assumed most of them had been caulked shut or painted over 10x and the doors would no longer open. I have never seen one open... until this morning. I was leaving my 'hood and there was a house up the street with the milk chute door open and I could clearly see the lights from the garage interior shining through.

That was interesting!
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Our house does not have a milk chute (the spot where it was was bricked over years ago) but many of the other 1950s houses in our neighborhood do still have them. I always assumed most of them had been caulked shut or painted over 10x and the doors would no longer open. I have never seen one open... until this morning. I was leaving my 'hood and there was a house up the street with the milk chute door open and I could clearly see the lights from the garage interior shining through.

That was interesting!
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No milk chute on the 1950s house I grew up in. Can't recall if they the older houses in the neighborhood had them.
 
jumbach said:
Our HOA is having a Super Bowl party at the clubhouse, and charging $5 admission. I have told them they shouldn't do that, but ifmake admission free and charge $5 for the food that's OK and is a legal workaround. Except, they said no, because it's a potluck and you can't charge for food AND make people bring stuff.

Well, OK then. I am not going to Karen my own HOA, but, they will probably get a nasty letter. The NFL goes after this sort of thing aggressively.

With that said, even though my wife's Seahawks are playing, we will NOT be having our annual bash at our house. Since there is a bigger party a block away at the clubhouse, we will merge our festivities with theirs. I will, however, still be up at 4 a.m. to begin making my Famous Ribs.

Jim
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Its been a while, but I know some churches got letters because they were going to host Super Bowl watch parties on delay, no admission. NFL felt that was an illegal broadcast.
 
I'm not as sore as I should be considering the amount of snow I shoveled - with a regular flat shovel instead of the snow shovel. Too much ice mixed in with the sleet.

I covered the truck with a tarp so the doors wouldn't freeze shut. However I parked my truck at the garage instead of down the driveway, which meant over twice the amount of driveway to shovel. I got 2/3 of the driveway done before I quit.
 
michaelskis said:
I donā€™t even know what to sayā€¦ other than this is not going to work. Perhaps they should not the trying to pull vehicles out if they donā€™t know how to attach a tow strap.

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Zoomed in that close, it's hard to tell the context... but that appears to be a newer camaro. I don't know about all trim packages in the newer Camaros but the SS comes with an tow eye that can be inserted in the front recovery point, if that's the case they don't know what they are doing.

Pulling it by the front wheel like that could work as it is rear wheel drive but it would have to be done just right.... which is not likely.
 
Big Owl said:
Zoomed in that close, it's hard to tell the context... but that appears to be a newer camaro. I don't know about all trim packages in the newer Camaros but the SS comes with an tow eye that can be inserted in the front recovery point, if that's the case they don't know what they are doing.

Pulling it by the front wheel like that could work as it is rear wheel drive but it would have to be done just right.... which is not likely.
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In addition to the whole rotation issue, the wheel assembly is not structured to stand up to that kind of stress and will seriously mess up the steering, if not worse.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
Its been a while, but I know some churches got letters because they were going to host Super Bowl watch parties on delay, no admission. NFL felt that was an illegal broadcast.
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Not sure why it would on delay. That's one of those things that should be live or not at all.

One church we used to be involved with would cancel evening services and show the game (free, for donations, which is allowed) in the dining hall. Except they said they "didn't have the rights to the halftime show" and turn the TV off for 20 minutes, having the kids do a skit instead. Cute, but incorrect--you don't need "rights" in this case. As a youth leader I would often be involved in the skit planning--my favorite was a football spin on the story of Joseph I helped write, with football teams representing the dreams. You had to be there.
 
Snow day yesterday, and I was at a conference last week south of me, so catching up

still a little sick - this cold/flu really wacked me for a loop

So happy the Patriots are off to the Super Bowl again - but our offense needs some serious work - we won that game only because we had a good defensive line

My Mom's family home on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse had a milk door (we called in the leprechaun door) and a coal chute - there was also a side door that led to the basement and also up into the house with a bathroom right there, so you could come in and use the bathroom if you were outside playing but not dirty up the joint - my Mom said her Mom used to feed people coming in that door offering to do yard work during the Depression, full dinner and a pie she said - I loved that house
 
Someone just came in to City Hall asking if we had a "White Pages."

Why would we have those?
Haven't thought about "white pages" in years. (Yellow pages are still around, I think, but I have no idea where to go to get one.) Even when those were common two decades ago, I never would have thought to go to a city building to get one.

If you want a list of businesses in town, the C of C a block away can help you. But no, he wanted a "White Pages." Good luck . . .

= = =

Fun fact: I used to carry a white and yellow page book with me in my car, beginning in 1994, because I never knew when I might be out and about and need to find the nearest "x." I never officially discontinued this policy, but I stopped making an effort to resupply annually about 2010.

Tangential fun fact: In January 2025, I discontinued my policy of always carrying two blank checks in my wallet "just in case." In the era of debit cards, they aren't necessary, and it's a big security risk if I lose my wallet.
 
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Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would encourage you to read, or re-read, Elie Wiesel's Night. It's a brief little book you can finish in a couple sittings, but it delivers a powerful message, and one we must never forget.
 
Wow, is it really 40 years tomorrow?????

I was in fourth grade. They wheeled a TV cart in and we watched the news all day.

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jumbach said:
Wow, is it really 40 years tomorrow?????

I was in fourth grade. They wheeled a TV cart in and we watched the news all day.

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I was in 2nd grade. We weren't watching it live but I do remember the principal making an announcement right after it happened and something about a moment of silence. Our school building only had grades 1-3 so I'm not sure if any of the classes were watching it live.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Our house does not have a milk chute (the spot where it was was bricked over years ago) but many of the other 1950s houses in our neighborhood do still have them. I always assumed most of them had been caulked shut or painted over 10x and the doors would no longer open. I have never seen one open... until this morning. I was leaving my 'hood and there was a house up the street with the milk chute door open and I could clearly see the lights from the garage interior shining through.

That was interesting!
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My grandma's house had a milk chute. We played with it a lot when we were little. A few years ago we mailed my little cousin through the chute. Ahh, good times.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I was in 2nd grade. We weren't watching it live but I do remember the principal making an announcement right after it happened and something about a moment of silence. Our school building only had grades 1-3 so I'm not sure if any of the classes were watching it live.
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Second grade her. We had a snow day but the school my dad taught in did not, so I went with him to work that day. Some teacher poked their head into the empty classroom I was hanging out in and told me what had happened. The next day at school we talked it all out in class, oddly what I remember is the teacher let kids come up to the front of the class and talk through what they saw, with several of the boys constructing models of the shuttle and booster rockets out of that yellow school paper with the blue lines and then using them to demonstrate the disaster.
 
michaelskis said:
In addition to the whole rotation issue, the wheel assembly is not structured to stand up to that kind of stress and will seriously mess up the steering, if not worse.
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If it's slowly pulled in the same direction as the tire, it's no different than a wheel lift tow truck. The wheel assembly is not delicate. You might end up with some slight alignment issues but that happens with day to day driving. Imagine the forces that act on a wheel assembly when preforming a power slide.
 
Big Owl said:
If it's slowly pulled in the same direction as the tire, it's no different than a wheel lift tow truck. The wheel assembly is not delicate. You might end up with some slight alignment issues but that happens with day to day driving. Imagine the forces that act on a wheel assembly when preforming a power slide.
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Tow trucks are balancing it out with both front wheels.

I was always told never to do that and was shown where to attach the straps, either on the frame, tow hooks, or in particular spots on the undercarriage. I have had do dig a couple times to yank friends out of snow banks or ditches when I was younger.

Maybe I was told wrong or things are different with vehicles today.
 
Related snow storm news -

Local headline - hospitals report broken bones and injuries due to weather
One hospital reported - "Per our Emergency Department, no frostbite or anything like that, but several broken bones/pelvis/head injuries from snow-related falls and sledding accidents,"
Another reported - "an increase in weather-related injuries and incidents" across some of its emergency departments and urgent care locations.
"These include falls resulting in injury, cold exposure, cardiac-related events and minor injuries from motor vehicle accidents,"
 
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I was out on a run this morning and noticed a bunch of houses still with their Christmas trees lit up. There are always a bunch of houses that leave their outdoor lights up until into February or March but I figured by now just about everybody would have their trees down but there were more lit up this morning than I expected to see. I stopped counting when I got to around 20.

There is also the old trope of that one house in the neighborhood that leaves the lights up on the roof/gutters all year long and just doesn't turn them on until December... we have a house down the street from us that leaves their lights up all year and turns them on most nights. However, the lights are programmable though so they change the colors based on the season. Most evenings right now they are red and pink as we approach Valentine's Day but I've noticed if there is an MSU Spartans basketball game they switch them to green and white (they do that during the football season too). During the NFL season they turn the lights blue and silver if the Lions are playing, around 4th of July they change the lights to red, white, and blue... We've all decided that our favorite combination is when they make the lights different shades of orange and purple around Halloween and then turn to other shades of orange and deep red and stuff like that around Thanksgiving. I think the lights have been up for about 3 years now.
 
^^ My outside lights are still up and will stay on until Lent begins. When I wanted to take them down last year, I found a finch nest that was wrapped around a cord. I didn't want to disturb the nest, so I left the lights up. I plan to take them down as soon as it warms up enough to work outside.

I took the tree down last Friday. Up until then, not only were the needles soft and fresh, and the tree still smelled fresh.

Back to business- this is a two wool sweater day. I can't feel warm.
 
I'll probably leave the lights up for a couple more weeks- if anything because the cords running to them are under a foot of snow or more at this point.

It seems like people left lights on farther into the winter starting with the first Covid holiday season in 2020-2021 and lots of people have continued that.
 
Yesterday IT pushed a bunch of software and driver and firmware updates to my computer and for the last hour of the day I basically just sat there watching as my computer kept needing to restart. After the second or third update I noticed that the resolution on one of the screens was suddenly super fuzzy. I went through a couple more restarts and the resolution was still bad. I shut the computer down and left for the day. When I plugged it back in and turned it on this morning the resolution was still messed up.

I go into the display settings and everything is how I like it but I mess around with the resolution and the fuzziness goes away but of course now the size of the screen is messed up.

Out of frustration I just start randomly clicking to "extend" and "duplicate" between the three screens. After toggling back and forth between different combinations probably a dozen times, something clicks and the resolution is now perfect again between all three screens!

I should get a job in IT!
 
kms said:
^^ My outside lights are still up and will stay on until Lent begins. When I wanted to take them down last year, I found a finch nest that was wrapped around a cord. I didn't want to disturb the nest, so I left the lights up. I plan to take them down as soon as it warms up enough to work outside.

I took the tree down last Friday. Up until then, not only were the needles soft and fresh, and the tree still smelled fresh.

Back to business- this is a two wool sweater day. I can't feel warm.
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We have lights up but use a service that installs, removes, and stores the lights. My time climbing a ladder is done. They are also prompt at replacing bulbs when they are out. Lights are still up but should be removed soon. The tree? That came down on December 26-27, along with all decorations. Decided to rent a storage unit for decorations and other items from our small basement.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I was out on a run this morning and noticed a bunch of houses still with their Christmas trees lit up. There are always a bunch of houses that leave their outdoor lights up until into February or March but I figured by now just about everybody would have their trees down but there were more lit up this morning than I expected to see. I stopped counting when I got to around 20.

There is also the old trope of that one house in the neighborhood that leaves the lights up on the roof/gutters all year long and just doesn't turn them on until December... we have a house down the street from us that leaves their lights up all year and turns them on most nights. However, the lights are programmable though so they change the colors based on the season. Most evenings right now they are red and pink as we approach Valentine's Day but I've noticed if there is an MSU Spartans basketball game they switch them to green and white (they do that during the football season too). During the NFL season they turn the lights blue and silver if the Lions are playing, around 4th of July they change the lights to red, white, and blue... We've all decided that our favorite combination is when they make the lights different shades of orange and purple around Halloween and then turn to other shades of orange and deep red and stuff like that around Thanksgiving. I think the lights have been up for about 3 years now.
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Yeah, these programmable lights became a thing last year and they're becoming increasingly more common. They can display any colors so February is red and pink, St. Patricks is green, Easter is pastel colors, July is red, white, and blue, Halloween orange and black, brown and yellow for Thanksgiving, red, green and white for Christmas.
 
Seven of the eight surviving Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives are on static display across the United States.
While #4014 is operational, you can visit the other seven at the following locations:

#4004: Cheyenne, Wyoming (Holiday Park)
#4005: Denver, Colorado (Forney Museum of Transportation)
#4006: St. Louis, Missouri (National Museum of Transportation)
#4012: Scranton, Pennsylvania (Steamtown National Historic Site)
#4017: Green Bay, Wisconsin (National Railroad Museum)
#4018: Frisco, Texas (Museum of the American Railroad)
#4023: Omaha, Nebraska (Kenefick Park)
 
JNA said:
Seven of the eight surviving Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives are on static display across the United States.
While #4014 is operational, you can visit the other seven at the following locations:

#4004: Cheyenne, Wyoming (Holiday Park)
#4005: Denver, Colorado (Forney Museum of Transportation)
#4006: St. Louis, Missouri (National Museum of Transportation)
#4012: Scranton, Pennsylvania (Steamtown National Historic Site)
#4017: Green Bay, Wisconsin (National Railroad Museum)
#4018: Frisco, Texas (Museum of the American Railroad)
#4023: Omaha, Nebraska (Kenefick Park)
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Saw #4014 twice a few years ago. Will be coming again in April 2026. Screengrab from a video.
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Did anyone else go aboard the Freedom Train back in the Bicentennial?

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I did when I was 12 years old. I don't recall a single thing that was displayed onboard the train, but have memories of the train itself.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I was out on a run this morning and noticed a bunch of houses still with their Christmas trees lit up. There are always a bunch of houses that leave their outdoor lights up until into February or March but I figured by now just about everybody would have their trees down but there were more lit up this morning than I expected to see. I stopped counting when I got to around 20.

There is also the old trope of that one house in the neighborhood that leaves the lights up on the roof/gutters all year long and just doesn't turn them on until December... we have a house down the street from us that leaves their lights up all year and turns them on most nights. However, the lights are programmable though so they change the colors based on the season. Most evenings right now they are red and pink as we approach Valentine's Day but I've noticed if there is an MSU Spartans basketball game they switch them to green and white (they do that during the football season too). During the NFL season they turn the lights blue and silver if the Lions are playing, around 4th of July they change the lights to red, white, and blue... We've all decided that our favorite combination is when they make the lights different shades of orange and purple around Halloween and then turn to other shades of orange and deep red and stuff like that around Thanksgiving. I think the lights have been up for about 3 years now.
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We do that for the inside lights for whatever sporting event we are watching: blue and white for Vancouver, red and white for the Commanders, all blue for Nevada. We also have ad hoc lighting sometimes, like for the Seahawks game they were green.

For election nights, red, white and blue. Also, for Olympics, either red white and blue or red and white, depending on what country we are watching.

The lights' main purpose is emergency lighting, in which case they go all white when the power is out. But we use it for effect lighting more and more.

For Vancouver games, the TV backlight has meaning as well:

Blue: normal mode

Red: Vancouver on power play

White: Vancouver penalty shot coming up

Flashing: Vancouver goal (complete with horn and ā€œ(Donā€™t You) Forget About Meā€; no steam because we have birds.

Green (quick burst): One minute to go in period OR end of period

Strobing: Vancouver win (doesnā€™t happen much)


I should post footage from the end of the Seahawks game the other day so you can see it in action for football.
 
JNA said:
Seven of the eight surviving Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives are on static display across the United States.
While #4014 is operational, you can visit the other seven at the following locations:

#4004: Cheyenne, Wyoming (Holiday Park)
#4005: Denver, Colorado (Forney Museum of Transportation)
#4006: St. Louis, Missouri (National Museum of Transportation)
#4012: Scranton, Pennsylvania (Steamtown National Historic Site)
#4017: Green Bay, Wisconsin (National Railroad Museum)
#4018: Frisco, Texas (Museum of the American Railroad)
#4023: Omaha, Nebraska (Kenefick Park)
Click to expand...

Would be so cool if one were at the Medina Railway Museum in Medina, NY (45 mins northeast of Buffalo)
 
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