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

WSU MUP Student said:
Our daughter's boyfriend is on the high school ski team (I didn't even know we had a ski team until he went away to a ski camp last spring) and they had a blurb about some results in the most recent school email newsletter. The newsletter said he came in 33rd in one event and 9th in another.

I made a joke to our daughter about him coming in 33rd and why would they highlight that in the newsletter... knowing that there are probably like 70 kids competing in any given event so 33rd isn't terrible. She got curious and asked him about it and he said most of the events actually have 100+ kids. Maybe that's some information that whoever writes up the blurb in the newsletter should probably include?

I guess it makes sense that there are so many kids competing at each meet: we have limited ski hills in Metro Detroit and there are a limited number of days that skiing can take place so they probably get all the schools that have ski teams and send them all out there on the same day each week (or however often they compete).
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100 kids (per gender) is a looong race day!

My son had a HS ski meet recently where they did three runs (but only about 60 starters and no re-set in between runs. Generally HS is a blast and a lot more fun than USSA racing once the kids are 15-16 years old (USSA gets deadly serious and becomes an insane time and $$$$$ commitment at that age).
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I made a joke a few weeks ago about one square of the heated sidewalks outside our building not working and that I'd need to contact my union rep about unsafe working conditions. If temps were that low in our office building I wouldn't be a joke; I would definitely be calling the union. Or OSHA?

I could deal with temps like that if I had a job where I was working outside and moving around a lot but a sedentary job at a desk and temps in the 40s sounds like a recipe for hypothermia.
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Mrs. is a circulation nurse and some doctors prefer the rooms in the upper 50s.
 
Faust_Motel said:
100 kids (per gender) is a looong race day!

My son had a HS ski meet recently where they did three runs (but only about 60 starters and no re-set in between runs. Generally HS is a blast and a lot more fun than USSA racing once the kids are 15-16 years old (USSA gets deadly serious and becomes an insane time and $$$$$ commitment at that age).
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I asked him about skiing back in the fall and he says he hates the ski meets precisely because they are sooo long and that actual competition but the school sends them to ski camp in northern Michigan in the fall and another in Colorado or Utah in the spring and then his parents agreed to send him to a 2-week ski camp in Oregon each summer if he skied for the school and he really likes going to all those camps so he suffers through the actual HS ski season knowing he's got the camps to look forward to. I think most of their ski meets are on the weekends but they also have a few that are during school days so they get to miss some school for those, which he probably likes too.

I've never skied and never really had a desire to do so but yeah, getting to go to a bunch of camps each year might make me more interested in the sport!

He grew up in Waterville, ME and the family just moved to Michigan a few years ago so I imagine they probably got to ski a lot on some more interesting terrain out there too.
 
Big Owl said:
So do you have to unbolt motor mounts and lift the motor to get to it?

It was recommended that I remove a tire off of my F-150 to change out the headlights. I was able to turn the wheel a certain way to access them instead of removing a tire. I replaced every light that I could get to while I was doing it. It would have been easier to remove the tire in retrospective.
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I have to remove the K member which holds damn near everything.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Watching South Pacific. I wonder why and when the shift of credits moved to the end of a movie. Too many as time progressed? Certainly at the beginning there are more eyes on the screen at the beginning than the end.
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We ALWAYS stay through the end of the movie, for a number of reasons. This has been my family's habit for as long as we've been moviegoing.

1. The credits are just as much an art form as the movie itself.
2. People worked hard making the film and deserved to be recognized. (Yes, even the caterer and key grip)
3. I know a couple people in the industry.
4. Often there is fun stuff or a wrapup of an unfinished plot line at the end of the credits.
5. By then the line for the bathroom and in the parking lot has wrapped up so I can go without delay.

When I am with someone who does not want to stay through the credits, the person/people is/are welcome to wait for me in the lobby. I won't be offended. Wife and I always stay though.
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Hey all - dug out of the snow and made it in today - how are the NY/NJ people faring
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Yeah, you don't get special sympathy for getting dumped on by a big snowstorm. You've lived your whole life in the Land of Ice and Snow. You signed up for this. Now, if you lived further south, we'd be all....Oh, you poor thing. How ever will you make it through this crisis? Sending positive thoughts your way etc.....
Brink Wuss GIF
 
Well, time to get the mouthguard out for sleeping... I'm not stressed out, am I? :grimace:
I slept like a champ with it in last night though...
 
Maister said:
Yeah, you don't get special sympathy for getting dumped on by a big snowstorm. You've lived your whole life in the Land of Ice and Snow. You signed up for this. Now, if you lived further south, we'd be all....Oh, you poor thing. How ever will you make it through this crisis? Sending positive thoughts your way etc.....
Brink Wuss GIF
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We come from the land of the ice and snow...
 
luckless pedestrian said:
Hey all - dug out of the snow and made it in today - how are the NY/NJ people faring
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After 25" of snow everything is good. State is operating on a 2 hour delay. Most of last week had been in the 40s so it gave a chance for the prior snow and ice accumulations to finally melt off after a couple of weeks, so the main roads are in pretty decent shape and plowing was able to clear most of the accumulations. Today is sunny so a little solar energy should also help. We are still going to have piles of snow hanging around for a while because of the volume. The trickiest part of my commute was getting out of the driveway. Subaru X Mode for the win.
 
mendelman said:
Think of it as a mudslide but it 'removes' itself in weather 33F+.

How's the wildfire smoke doing right now?

:smirk:
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Hehe.. it's not wildfire season... yet. But wildfires are a microcosm of my town's constituents.

Constitutents: We need to be wildfire ready.
Me: Agreed. We need to change our landscaping standards to champion fire hardiness and eliminate excess landscaping that leads to water consumption and combustables around properties.
Constituents: But our property values.
 
arcplans said:
Hehe.. it's not wildfire season... yet. But wildfires are a microcosm of my town's constituents.

Constitutents: We need to be wildfire ready.
Me: Agreed. We need to change our landscaping standards to champion fire hardiness and eliminate excess landscaping that leads to water consumption and combustables around properties.
Constituents: But our property values.
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Is your fair community Firewise ?
www.nfpa.org

NFPA - Firewise USA®

NFPA's Firewise USA® program teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action.
www.nfpa.org www.nfpa.org
 
A guy at the College I went to went missing after being out at the bar early Sunday Morning and most of the community is looking.

www.uppermichiganssource.com

UPDATE: Search continues for missing 21-year-old NMU student

If you know of Massey’s whereabouts, please contact the Marquette Police Department at (906) 228-0400.
www.uppermichiganssource.com www.uppermichiganssource.com

If he remained outside, it is highly unlikely they will find him alive. They have had storms and significant snowfall since his last known location.
 
michaelskis said:
A guy at the College I went to went missing after being out at the bar early Sunday Morning and most of the community is looking.

www.uppermichiganssource.com

UPDATE: Search continues for missing 21-year-old NMU student

If you know of Massey’s whereabouts, please contact the Marquette Police Department at (906) 228-0400.
www.uppermichiganssource.com www.uppermichiganssource.com

If he remained outside, it is highly unlikely they will find him alive. They have had storms and significant snowfall since his last known location.
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This is a real thing in snowy college locations - I fished a friend out of a snowbank a few times when they passed out walking home - I would get all the way home, realize they weren't home, and then go back to look for them

People pass out and then are hit by a snowplow - it's pretty gruesome
 
luckless pedestrian said:
This is a real thing in snowy college locations - I fished a friend out of a snowbank a few times when they passed out walking home - I would get all the way home, realize they weren't home, and then go back to look for them

People pass out and then are hit by a snowplow - it's pretty gruesome
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It sounds like the search took a turn. They found security video of him walking out on the ice on Lake Superior...
 
michaelskis said:
It sounds like the search took a turn. They found security video of him walking out on the ice on Lake Superior...
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It's hard to imagine a more exposed place than on the ice of Lake Superior. Don't think this is going to end well.:(
 
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