Random Thoughts That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Go Here

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Definitely a state law area. Helmets required by law in Georgia for riders (regular or e-bike) under 16. Bicycles prohibited on sidewalks for riders over age 12, except where reversed by local ordinance (city of Atlanta is actually one locale that reversed this)

In Florida, Will just had a case that began with a traffic stop for a e-bike on the highway without the required lights ... but their lighting rules & Georgia lighting rules are different.

You can have all the laws in the world. If the police don't or can't enforce them then they are pointless.

Similar to what RM said I see kids all the time doing wheelies, swerving, lane splitting, and riding 4 wide. We get kids from surrounding towns as well due to our proximity to the beach, so it's extra bad.

I lay a huge amount of blame on the parents for not only buying them, but not enforcing any rules.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

You can have all the laws in the world. If the police don't or can't enforce them then they are pointless

Most cops hate those fn things as much as the discussion here, so they tend -- generically speaking -- to be happy enough to enforce stuff when the opportunity arises.

YMMV, locations, etc

[Ghost Econ]

I think my wife had a heart attack when she saw the Chick-fil-A in the Philly airport serves Pepsi instead of Coke.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

I think my wife had a heart attack when she saw the Chick-fil-A in the Philly airport serves Pepsi instead of Coke.

Good God Man...

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is anyone else's neighborhood inundated with those electric bikes that kids are riding around? Not to sound too old man yelling at clouds but it seems pretty dangerous. Those things going down sidewalks at 25 MPH feels like a disaster waiting to happen.

We still have E-bikes around but we also have the electric scooters flying up and down every sidewalk. Oh and I can't forget the ever present middle schoolers driving golf carts throughout the subdivision.

[albionmoonlight]

I needed a parking spot, and I saw a guy get into his car, so I got in a position to enter his space and turned my blinker on. And he just stayed and stayed in his car. I eventually moved on.

This was not the first time I've had someone just not move when the get in their car. What is up with that? When I get into my car, I plug in my phone and go. What are people doing that takes up so much time?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I needed a parking spot, and I saw a guy get into his car, so I got in a position to enter his space and turned my blinker on. And he just stayed and stayed in his car. I eventually moved on.

This was not the first time I've had someone just not move when the get in their car. What is up with that? When I get into my car, I plug in my phone and go. What are people doing that takes up so much time?

Could be checking their phone/text/email/etc, could be waiting for a msg that determines their next destination, could be deciding their next destinatin, could just be taking a mental pause before dealing with driving, any number of things.

I won't generally do it in a super busy parking lot for any extended time but it's really not THAT uncommon for me to take 5 (or 10) before starting the car.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I needed a parking spot, and I saw a guy get into his car, so I got in a position to enter his space and turned my blinker on. And he just stayed and stayed in his car. I eventually moved on.

This was not the first time I've had someone just not move when the get in their car. What is up with that? When I get into my car, I plug in my phone and go. What are people doing that takes up so much time?

Sorry.

I am definitely the guy who will go wait in the car as opposed to waiting in places that I have grown weary of or knowing that the process of leaving someplace will be more extensive that I feel is necessary but it is not worth fighting for. Recently, my wife, son and I went clothes shopping right before school after which we were going to the movies and dinner. Once the clothes were selected for purchase and I saw there was a line about 10 deep for two cashiers, I headed to the car. I will tell people that might see me going to the car that I am not leaving immediately. I used to just leave the spot and park in a place where I could see them leaving the store and pick them up by the door but I have found that drivers in 2025 are a bit confused as to what to do when someone has their flashers on in those situations.

[bhlloy]

I do think there's an etiquette piece here that if somebody is waiting for your spot and the parking lot is clearly full or close to full and there are people circling that you would move your car in that situation. Maybe that's just me being overly British, but at that point I'd be happy to be the one that circles and/or sit there with hazards on so somebody who needs the spot can take it.

If there's a ton of spaces and it's just a guy who wants to park a bit closer to the store or inexplicably seems to want this spot when there are a ton of others, then yeah I think it's a bit more of a different story.

[miami_fan]

If there is a 1% chance that the parking lot is full, it is highly unlikely for me to be in that parking lot. The exception is if I have come to be entertained by the foolery of an old school Black Friday shopper. I am almost exclusively an off peak times consumer. As far as etiquette goes, like I said, if I see someone waiting when I get in the car I will let them know to find another spot if I am not going anywhere. If I am leaving I will do so without too much delay. But if someone is in the next row over and just so happen to see me getting in the car, I don't think I have a requirement to get out of the car to let them know to find another spot.

I get the frustration that comes from not being able to find a parking spot and not getting what you thought was a soon to be available spot. Yes, circumstances like time and place matter. But I can think of many reasons why I have probably been seen getting in the car and have people assume I am leaving and that not be the case. Given the amount of time we spend in our cars in general, everything that can be accomplished business and otherwise while just sitting in the car and our car being the one safe space we may have at the time, I am not sure that the you can just assume that a person getting into the driver's seat means that person is definitely leaving that parking spot immediately any more unless it is a parking space that has a time limit attached.

[flere-imsaho]

I tend to park in the very last row these days, to be honest, so this rarely comes up for me. Except for Trader Joe's, which famously has the world's smallest parking lots, but my wife does 99% of the TJ trips, so I don't have to deal with it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

I tend to park in the very last row these days, to be honest, so this rarely comes up for me. Except for Trader Joe's, which famously has the world's smallest parking lots, but my wife does 99% of the TJ trips, so I don't have to deal with it.

Didn't know that was TJs trademark, I just figured it was the case in Athens.
#TMYK

[flere-imsaho]

Over 20 years ago when we lived in Chicago proper the furniture chain Crate & Barrel opened some "lesser-priced" stores called CB2 (still around, apparently) aimed at younger people who liked C&B stuff but not the prices.

Since "younger people who liked C&B stuff but not the prices" described us at the time, we went to take a look. While there I commented to my now-wife on how small the parking lot was and joked "it's even worse than a typical Trader Joe's parking lot".

Well, a year or two later they moved that CB2 to another location (with better parking) and guess what eventually moved into the space it vacated? Yep, a Trader Joe's. LOL In fact, it's still there. Look at this shit: 3745 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60613 (to be fair, a lot of people probably walk/bike to this particular location).

[GrantDawg]

Funny this discussion came up when yesterday while working I ran into Publix for a quick grab and go lunch. There was a big plumbing van pulling out that was parked pretty close in a pretty full parking lot, and slipped in once he pulled out. Ran in and got my lunch, and when I got back to the truck I decided I would free up the spot and pull toward the back to eat. Who do I see parked further back in the lot where I parked? The same plumbing van.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Funny this discussion came up when yesterday while working I ran into Publix for a quick grab and go lunch. There was a big plumbing van ...

Talk about plumbing ... we had a couple DIY projects, one more immediate than another because of a slow leak. We failed in both so decided to call the plumber. First one never returned a call, the other gave us a reasonable date and estimated cost (but tbh, we were worried about getting screwed).

Plumber arrived on time. Nice but also professional. Wife and I were shamed when he fixed both issues in under 30 min. We asked him to look at something else and he fixed that in 10 min.

Did get a chance to talk to him. He said no trade school just apprenticeship. Plenty of work and won't ever be outsourced or AI'd.

The bill was as expected, and we gave him a nice tip. Good experience.

[flere-imsaho]

Have a friend my age who about 7 years ago decided to give up office work and become an electrician. Loves it. Guy was/is pretty handy and did, for instance, most of the work on their house (including electrical), so he wasn't starting from zero.

[dubb93]

I don’t think that there is a zero percent chance that they invent robots that can fix leaky pipes and that can put a house up from a full blueprint. I mean, sure, it’s going to come later than we end up displacing white color jobs but how far behind is it going to be?

[Passacaglia]

My Fitbit gives me the average steps per day, calories burned, and probably some other stats too, aggregating them by week, month, and year. However, it includes today when calculating this average. Why would anyone want to include a day that's just started when getting that average?

[Ksyrup]

I have a similar issue with my treadmill, which gives a rolling weekly mileage total each day. Except, it includes today and every day back to and including last Tuesday. So effectively, each day it gives me a "Beatles week" worth of mileage (8 days). It never actually gives me how many miles I've run in the past 7 days.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Has anyone used Thrive Market? My mom gifted me a subscription for Hanukkah and I'm just getting around to using it. It's look like it's a $60 per year membership, just so I can get access to stuff that's also overpriced? I'm trying to figure out what I can buy that would make this worth it.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I randomly googled the subject since I'd never heard of Thrive until this post.

Based on some message board reading, it's only reasonably competitive categories are baby products (food, wipes, etc) and name brand packaged/convenience organic foods. Most posters commented about how Costco and even Target were often cheaper on many items in all other categories and within 10% or so on just about anything.

In the same apparent niche some expressed a preference for something called Azure(?), which apparently has better selection & pricing on things like produce

That's about what I found. Also a lot of comments that it's only worth anything if you don't have a good source of organic/granola/healthy foods near you.

None of that is me -- my kids are 15, 13, and 13, so I'm way past baby products, and I live 8 minutes from a Whole Foods, 7 minutes from a Trader Joe's, and 2 minutes from a food co-op.

I am lazy, so the fact that they ship you the stuff is appealing. So I ordered some snacks, figuring I'll give them a try and use my "gift" (even though I'm probably having to pay more for each item than I could have if I bought it at other places). Turns out they ALSO decided that I want to have this same stuff shipped to me once a month, so a month later I got an email saying that they just sent me more. Great.

[flere-imsaho]

I'm at Kroger this afternoon, doing the weekly "big" shop. My local Kroger's is consistently understaffed, so usually there are no baggers. Which is fine as I'm OK doing my own bagging.

I get in line and the cashier appears to be a) older and b) new, so he's scanning and bagging very slow. The customer in front of me is a woman and her three kids, I'm going to estimate 8, 10, 12.

Do they do any bagging? Reader, they do not. They stand there, doing very little actually.

Infuriating.

Anyway, I bagged my own stuff and was out of there in a fraction of the time that they were.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I don’t think that there is a zero percent chance that they invent robots that can fix leaky pipes and that can put a house up from a full blueprint. I mean, sure, it’s going to come later than we end up displacing white color jobs but how far behind is it going to be?

Whenever the decision is made that it is ridiculous to pay a human being to "just" fix a leaky pipe when you can get a robot to do it for less. It will come in steps though. Until then, while I know the current resurgence of learning a trade has taken on a political aspect, I don't think we should underestimate the parental acceptance as well. There are less people turning up their noses at kids learning a trade though I have not seen a big change in parents being cool with their kids learning a trade.

[bhlloy]

At the point a robot can build an entire house to code from a set of plans we are 99% of the way to robots can do anything a human can do.

Is it really a meaningful distinction at that point to talk about trade jobs vs white collar jobs? Either we’ve got some form of UBI and the world is going in a far more promising direction than it is today, or everything is completely fucked and pick your dystopian vision.

[Ben E Lou]

So tomorrow morning, the 16yo and I are the vocalists on the worship team. Guitar player is solidly Millenial, in his mid/late 30s. Drummer is Xennial, early 40s. Bassist is GenX, early 50s. Sound guy is also GenX, mid/late 40s. So Carter is by far the youngest, and also the only female. The Worship Director is out of town and she put me in charge this week. Near the end of rehearsal earlier in the week, the bass player suggested a big change in the plan, and the rest of the team immediately/unanimously/enthusiastically chimed in with agreement. I technically had the authority to make the call right then, but this was a significant enough change that I wanted to run it by the Worship Director to see what she thought. (Well, and frankly, it was something that, if it doesn't go well, could have EASILY been ascribed to me pushing an agenda, so I really wanted the "hey, Amelia approved it, not me" cover. ) Amelia gets back to me agreeing with the change after I was asleep last night, so I text the team this morning. Bass player responds with:





Perfectly reasonable response to all but one of us in the group. However, a few minutes ago, my precious Gen Z child asks "Dad, uh, is that supposed to be Charlie Kirk and Trump? And if so, WHY????"


And now I will never be able to unsee it.

[flere-imsaho]

Oh... wow....

[Passacaglia]

Anyone here have an app that controls their garage door? If so, does yours give you an alert that you've left it open, or even automatically closes it? I love that I can close mine from wherever, or see that it's open if I go into the app, but it feels pointless if it's not taking the initiative itself to tell me. It seems like that should be an easy thing, but mine doesn't have it.

[RainMaker]

I don't know why I went so long in my life avoiding tinned fish. Went down a rabbit hole and sardines or tinned calamari are my go-to snacks.

[RainMaker]

And on cue after talking about thoese e-bikes, this happened down the street from my Dad.

Arlington Heights e-bike crash victim identified as 16-year-old – NBC Chicago

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I don't know why I went so long in my life avoiding tinned fish. Went down a rabbit hole and sardines or tinned calamari are my go-to snacks.

Sardines in mustard sauce used to be a favorite, especially when fishing or camping. I don't eat them veru often any more, though not because I don't enjoy them. My wife hates when I open a can in the house.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

And on cue after talking about thoese e-bikes, this happened down the street from my Dad.

Arlington Heights e-bike crash victim identified as 16-year-old – NBC Chicago

A preliminary investigation showed the teen ignored a stop sign for Reuter Drive. Witnesses told authorities they saw the rider enter the intersection going between 30 and 40 miles per hour. According to the nonprofit organization Ride Illinois, only e-motos, which are different than e-bicycles, are capable of exceeding 20 mph.

I'm not being hyperbolic when I say I see it every day in the shore town I live in during warm months. It's a tragedy and I 100% blame the parents.

I have had several near misses and it is always because some kid completely ignores traffic laws and right of way. My son takes drum lessons by a bust area a few blocks from the beach. I used to go grab a beer while he is there and I won't even do that anymore because I am terrified if I kill some kid even having one beer would jam me up.

[Kodos]

My shore town is infested with e-bikes too.

[RainMaker]

I'm not just worried about crashes but bike paths. These kids going 30-40 down a bike path and if they hit someone walking or jogging, that's probably a serious injury or death for people.

[bhlloy]

There was a massive riot in my hometown in the UK a year or two ago because 2 kids on a modified e-bike were being followed at distance by the police, and went head on into a bus and were killed. One of my good friends from high school is an officer and took a brick to the arm so bad he nearly lost his hand, the pics are gnarly.

At this point the things should be banned or users/parents/guardians depending on the age of the rider should start getting severe penalties up to jail time. An absolute plague on society.

[Ksyrup]

I'm in Ft. Worth for a conference (first time back in DFW area since we moved my parents following my dad's accident) and I'm staying at the Ft. Worth Hilton, formerly known as Hotel Texas, the hotel JFK and Jackie stayed the night before his assassination. They were in room 1530. I'm in 1514. And the decor in this room looks like it was last remodeled in 1963.

[RainMaker]

Just had my first colonoscopy and the prep is a million times worse than the procedure part.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Just had my first colonoscopy and the prep is a million times worse than the procedure part.

yup. had mine a couple weeks ago and omg yes. including the shot glass of sludge I had to "drink" as my anasthesia...followed by....okay we're gonna stick this up your nose and stick this in your mouth please bite down...

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

yup. had mine a couple weeks ago and omg yes. including the shot glass of sludge I had to "drink" as my anasthesia...followed by....okay we're gonna stick this up your nose and stick this in your mouth please bite down...

Er … are you sure you had a colonoscopy?

Yeah, prep is awful but procedure itself not a big deal. They put me to sleep and then I woke up.

[GrantDawg]

Best sleep ever.

[Edward64]

They had me breathe whatever, had me count backwards and then seemingly mid count ... (fade to black).

Kaiser HMO if that matters.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Er … are you sure you had a colonoscopy?

Yeah, prep is awful but procedure itself not a big deal. They put me to sleep and then I woke up.

Probably had an endoscopy at the same time. Thats what they did for me. Got it from both ends.

[Edward64]

Thanks, did not know, read up on it and It does sound awful. Hasn’t come up with my GP so am grateful.

[flere-imsaho]

I was unexpectedly a little freaked out about being put under (I've not been put under since having my wisdom teeth out at 18, and have never fainted), and of course the prep was terrible (though I had the pills, which I've heard aren't as bad as the solution).

Also lost like 5 pounds.

[Ksyrup]

I posted about my experience previously. I've had 2 now in 3 years due to ileitis (Crohns lite). The first colonoscopy I had, I wasn't sedated at all. I watched it on the screen while the doc talked it through.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I posted about my experience previously. I've had 2 now in 3 years due to ileitis (Crohns lite). The first colonoscopy I had, I wasn't sedated at all. I watched it on the screen while the doc talked it through.

That would be a big no from me.

[Ksyrup]

In full disclosure, the female nurse goaded me into it by claiming that most guys don't get sedated. I think she was just hoping to do less work. She got what she wanted.

[flere-imsaho]

So, she promised you social intercourse in exchange for letting her shove something up your butt.

[Ksyrup]

She didn't do it. The doc did. But I saved her having to set up the anesthesia plus babysitting afterward before I was released.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

In full disclosure, the female nurse goaded me into it by claiming that most guys don't get sedated. I think she was just hoping to do less work. She got what she wanted.

Er ... she must have been really hot.

[flere-imsaho]

Rush are reuniting for a 50th anniversary tour: Blocked

New drummer: How Anika Nilles Became Rush's New Drummer

Insert "take my money" meme here.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hadn't done it in a while, decided to use Instacart today for a few things.

Small order, "arrives by 3:29p". (this was a little before 3p)

The instant the order is confirmed? Delivery time shifts all the way to 411p.

Since then, in the past few minutes, it has bounced from
-- having a driver who would arrive at the store by 3:39p
-- latest delivery by 4:19p
-- latest delivery by 3:31p
-- and then a text that says "we're sorry but your order is running late, check website for latest details"

They've had 5 different times for it -- varying by 50 minutes -- in just the past 20 minutes.

Any wonder then why I hadn't used Instacart in five months prior to today?

edit to add: got a 6th different delivery window while I was posting this. 6 different times in the 23 minutes since I placed the fucking order