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

Speaking of impromptu pop can pipes, did you ever think about how all the epoxy lacquer that gets applied to the can in creating the branding? Yeah, when you put a lighter next to that and inhale you're surely taking some of that in. I know, probably the last thing you were thinking of, especially under circumstances where you find yourself having to punch holes in a pop can with a nail or a ball point pen.
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Maister said:
Speaking of impromptu pop can pipes, did you ever think about how all the epoxy lacquer that gets applied to the can in creating the branding? Yeah, when you put a lighter next to that and inhale you're surely taking some of that in. I know, probably the last thing you were thinking of, especially under circumstances where you find yourself having to punch holes in a pop can with a nail or a ball point pen.
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Yeah well it beats the Alar on the apples.
 
Major turmoil at my old jurisidiction. Yesterday, the Governor and head of the State Police stepped in and removed the City Police Chief and top five leaders, installing the county undersheriff as temporary lead. Apparently, major fiscal mismanagement and POST fraud, but I have no official comment. MILLIONS of dollars of city money missing. (Which explains why I no longer work there . . .)

www.2news.com

Acting Chief appointed to RPD after Chief Nance, 5 officers placed on administrative leave

The assignment came as part of an Interlocal Agreement with the Washoe County Sheriffā€™s Office to provide temporary leadership staffing.
www.2news.com www.2news.com
 
The "Morning Brew" has become my official "read over breakfast" newspaper, replacing the Reno Gazette-Journal, which I don't miss.

MB is free, except for a few cents' worth of ink and paper. I discovered it while listening to a podcast where it was mentioned offhandedly, and I've become a big fan. News I care about, without the crap. They even have games and other fun, and in-depth reporting on Sundays!
 
Doohickie said:
This site I think was one of the examples of what I posted about in my previous comment. I thought about buying this for my son and researched the brand a little bit and some of the "what I received" versus the "what the online picture looked like" were comically bad.
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I was going to get one, I thought cool shirt. Then I looked around and found every "brand" with a funny sounding name had the exact same shirt. I figured they were using someone's art somewhere and clicked away from it.
 
The sad questions of the day:

1. Do I need elevations for the new pickleball court?
2. Can I just build along the lines of the house? It has a variance for a 4' setback and it's actually 2'-6" from the fence.
 
jumbach said:
The "Morning Brew" has become my official "read over breakfast" newspaper, replacing the Reno Gazette-Journal, which I don't miss.

MB is free, except for a few cents' worth of ink and paper. I discovered it while listening to a podcast where it was mentioned offhandedly, and I've become a big fan. News I care about, without the crap. They even have games and other fun, and in-depth reporting on Sundays!
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You should try the podcast.
 
I live in a small town that is part of a string of small towns and while town pride is definitely a thing, we all think of ourselves as a community. Today has been a rough one for us.

Late last night a beloved small cafe that is known for its breakfast and lunch caught on fire and was destroyed. We all have volunteer fire departments summoned by very loud tornado type sirens that went off around midnight. Numerous companies responded while the others went on alert to cover those responding.

This morning there was a shocking triple homicide about a half mile from my house. I must have just missed the police response on my way to work as I pass right by it. As details have slowly come out, it seems that a man who was separated or divorced from his wife shot her parents and then chased her down the street and shot her as well. Their 3 children were in the home but unharmed. He turned the gun on himself but survived and is in the hospital.
 
DVD said:
The sad questions of the day:

1. Do I need elevations for the new pickleball court?
2. Can I just build along the lines of the house? It has a variance for a 4' setback and it's actually 2'-6" from the fence.
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So do we need elevations or not? Just in case.... They can use these. It's not like y'all are going to review them any ways. ;)

pickleball_court_satire_under_500kb.jpg
 
I saw a very big fox this morning while I was coming back from the gym. They're good at staying hidden and I don't see them often so I always enjoy when I do see them. There was one summer about a decade ago where we'd see one in our neighborhood nearly every evening for about a month or so.

There were also two times I've seen a mother fox with 3 or 4 kits trailing behind her and I have to say that they are by far the cutest baby animals I've ever seen.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I saw a very big fox this morning while I was coming back from the gym. They're good at staying hidden and I don't see them often so I always enjoy when I do see them. There was one summer about a decade ago where we'd see one in our neighborhood nearly every evening for about a month or so.

There were also two times I've seen a mother fox with 3 or 4 kits trailing behind her and I have to say that they are by far the cutest baby animals I've ever seen.
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Where's Dandy?
 
Big Owl said:
So do we need elevations or not? Just in case.... They can use these. It's not like y'all are going to review them any ways. ;)

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We now have 24 covered pickleball courts with fencing around the edges. I wish I could ask for elevations. The covers are commonly used to store salt and sand. I call them the big top, even though they arent round. They are stark white with green chain link fencing and screening. Its so ugly. Looks like some sort of makeshift prison facility.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I saw a very big fox this morning while I was coming back from the gym. They're good at staying hidden and I don't see them often so I always enjoy when I do see them. There was one summer about a decade ago where we'd see one in our neighborhood nearly every evening for about a month or so.

There were also two times I've seen a mother fox with 3 or 4 kits trailing behind her and I have to say that they are by far the cutest baby animals I've ever seen.
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Of all the wildlife around here, foxes are my favorite to watch. Both red and gray foxes live in the area, though red foxes are more common. The adults are agile and deliberate, while the kits are playful and entertaining. This time of year I can usually spot them at dawn or dusk behind the Baptist church a few blocks south of my house.

This weekend I saw Western North Carolina elk for the first time. The first one I saw was in a natural setting.

elk 2.jpg


The next two encounters were not as much so.

elk on sidewalk.jpg



elk 3.jpg
 
luckless pedestrian said:
This is happening here - it's such a pain in the @$$
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Same here. Odd part is we are not sure how they are connecting all the dots. One "came" from me the other day for a project where my involvement is behind the scenes. But other times it was the project planner who was the point of contact.



Unrelated, my eldest's HS choir is going to Ireland next spring. We registered him yesterday and at the end of the process the last page noted that we will receive a confirmation e-mail. It never came. I called the customer service number today and he was able to access the trip information, but explained that for performance based trips, they don't send us a confirmation e-mail. Instead it goes to the organizer. I am thinking, Hold the F*%@ up... I am dropping this kind of money and I don't even get a confirmation e-mail! I took screenshots of the account page showing how much we have already paid and the amount yet to be paid to prevent any confusions or questions. Yes, I have trust issues.
 
michaelskis said:
Same here. Odd part is we are not sure how they are connecting all the dots. One "came" from me the other day for a project where my involvement is behind the scenes. But other times it was the project planner who was the point of contact.
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Yep. The project applicant and planner name are public information and released after every submittal cycle, so it's easy to get. We tell people to contact the planners only through officially-published numbers, not some random phone number many states away.
 
michaelskis said:
Same here. Odd part is we are not sure how they are connecting all the dots. One "came" from me the other day for a project where my involvement is behind the scenes. But other times it was the project planner who was the point of contact.



Unrelated, my eldest's HS choir is going to Ireland next spring. We registered him yesterday and at the end of the process the last page noted that we will receive a confirmation e-mail. It never came. I called the customer service number today and he was able to access the trip information, but explained that for performance based trips, they don't send us a confirmation e-mail. Instead it goes to the organizer. I am thinking, Hold the F*%@ up... I am dropping this kind of money and I don't even get a confirmation e-mail! I took screenshots of the account page showing how much we have already paid and the amount yet to be paid to prevent any confusions or questions. Yes, I have trust issues.
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I love confirmations. I print out everything just in case there's a snafu. And if I cancel something and get a cancellation email, I save that printed cancellation email for five years. (I figure after that long it wouldn't be questioned; my wife thinks one year is long enough. Maybe we should compromise on three.)
 
DVD said:
Sunday? Nope church.
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Excellent point, and commendable.

We are not particularly religious, but we do agree with having one day a week to refresh yourself and exercise self-care. It's generally Sunday in my case, but sometimes it's Saturday if I have a full plate on Sunday. I usually take a long walk at one of several parks in my rotation that day.

My wife's day for that is Monday, since she is off Mondays and Tuesdays.
 
jumbach said:
Excellent point, and commendable.

We are not particularly religious, but we do agree with having one day a week to refresh yourself and exercise self-care. It's generally Sunday in my case, but sometimes it's Saturday if I have a full plate on Sunday. I usually take a long walk at one of several parks in my rotation that day.

My wife's day for that is Monday, since she is off Mondays and Tuesdays.
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Not actually a church guy myself, but I assume other people do it.

Yes, taking a day to do nothing is important.
 
DVD said:
Not actually a church guy myself, but I assume other people do it.

Yes, taking a day to do nothing is important.
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Not necessarily doing "nothing," just not having a set routine, and only doing something if I feel like it. If you make plans involving me on a weekend, that's fine, but please tell me about them by Friday morning, at the absolute latest. That way I can plan my weekend.

This weekend, for example: I am busy all day Saturday with errands, from about 7 a.m. until about 3, then we have a get-together with friends at 5.

So, yes, I technically am free on Sunday, but my plans are to do some get caught up on reading for a couple of hours, do some weeding in the front yard, do the laundry, then go through pictures and such and order things for our upcoming 50/20 party in April. Nothing involving leaving the house. So, technically, it would be accurate to say "I have other plans," even if it's misleading.

(People have a tendency to wait to tell me about plans involving me until five minutes before I need to leave the house for whatever the plans are. I've started cracking down on that: I say, "I'll do it, but, as a warning, I will be quite grumpy about it because I wasn't told about it ahead of time, and I won't be fun to be around.")
 
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In this part of Germany everything, but a handful of restaurants, is closed on Sundays. It stems from religious traditions and you're not really supposed to make much noise (including vacuuming, aw darn) on Sundays.

It took a bit to adjust to this concept but now we enjoy it. We get to spend time together, often outside, or catch up with quiet hobbies around the house.
 
dandy_warhol said:
In this part of Germany everything, but a handful of restaurants, is closed on Sundays. It stems from religious traditions and you're not really supposed to make much noise (including vacuuming, aw darn) on Sundays.

It took a bit to adjust to this concept but now we enjoy it. We get to spend time together, often outside, or catch up with quiet hobbies around the house.
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Lutherans are big on that.

I suppose, though, that if you spill something like flour accidentally, that would be an exception.
 
dandy_warhol said:
That's what brooms are for!
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Years and years ago when we lived in our apartment (this would have been the late 00ā€™s), the neighbor below us called the cops because we were making noise at 6 a.m. on a weekday.

I was quite surprised when three cops banged on our door that early in the morning and pulled us out and talked to us separately. What happened: I was making coffee and dropped the coffee pot. It shattered, and I may have sworn loudly and briefly because of my own frustration. The loud noise startled my wife, who came running out of the bedroom.

Cops figured out that nothing happened except my being a klutz and went on their way. They cleared the call about three minutes after they got there.

Why the city needed to dispatch three cops in three separate cars for that, or why the neighbor didnā€™t just come up and ask us if we were OK, are mysteries to me to this day. We arenā€™t the type to make a whole lot of noise of have loud parties.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
You're obviously not a Quaker.
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I'm a bit far from Pennsylvania.


But when I was kid in California, soccer signups for the youth league were at the Citrus Heights Friends Church, which I believe is an offshoot of the Quakers.

= = =

Officially and legally, I am Methodist, but am baptized and grew up Assemblies of God*. Nowadays, not really anything except for General Diest.

* That's why we couldn't get married at our church, but went to a different one. We wanted dancing, and AG doesn't allow dancing outside of divine interventions in a service. But let's not go down that road.
 
kjel said:
I live in a small town that is part of a string of small towns and while town pride is definitely a thing, we all think of ourselves as a community. Today has been a rough one for us.

Late last night a beloved small cafe that is known for its breakfast and lunch caught on fire and was destroyed. We all have volunteer fire departments summoned by very loud tornado type sirens that went off around midnight. Numerous companies responded while the others went on alert to cover those responding.

This morning there was a shocking triple homicide about a half mile from my house. I must have just missed the police response on my way to work as I pass right by it. As details have slowly come out, it seems that a man who was separated or divorced from his wife shot her parents and then chased her down the street and shot her as well. Their 3 children were in the home but unharmed. He turned the gun on himself but survived and is in the hospital.
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The murderer has died. The children are in protective custody. The woman who was murdered worked at my agency in a different department. I worked from home today, but the agency sent out a beautiful tribute this morning.
 
Cranfordā€™s perennial pest broke out with Sweet Caroline and the crowd joined in šŸ˜†
 
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